Mikey Smiles
by Marmy
Summary: Mikey lives underground in a community to hide from the Combine. He spends most of his time coding and pining over his childhood friend Amelia. This story follows Mikey as he joins a team from his community to delve into Aperture and retrieve Doug Rattmann, a programmer who has been struggling to survive in Aperture for nearly two decades. (AKA "Smiles" from Mikey's POV)
1. Chap 1: Wallflowers

**AN: Why did I make this? I can't remember what compelled me to start this story. I guess I just really liked the relationship between Mikey and Amelia. I loved giving them a happy ending in 'Frowns', and I couldn't get the two of them out of my head. I guess I'm a sucker for the whole 'childhood friends being soulmates' thing. I don't know if anyone really wanted this or cares about it, but it's going up on here regardless.**

 **Also, I'd like to welcome back any returning readers. If you're new, maybe start with my first story 'Love As A Construct'. Otherwise, you** _ **will**_ **be confused.**

Mikey stood at the edge of the party with a can of soda in his hand. He didn't particularly like the taste of champagne. He pretended to mingle amongst the others, but he was really just staring at Amelia. Her long brown hair was tied back in a bun—her usual style—and her skin seemed to have a glow to it tonight. She looked so excited about having Wheatley there. He hadn't seen her so happy in such a long time. Of course, he hadn't really seen much of her _at all_ for a pretty long time. She seemed to be in her apartment a lot.

He watched as she approached Wheatley who twitched anxiously with so many people bombarding him with questions. Mikey thought about approaching them to help disperse the crowd but he decided against it. She probably didn't want to socialize with him right now. It had been too long.

"Hey, Mikey," Stevie said, coming up to him. He was a pale man in his early-thirties that worked in the robotics department. His short ginger hair was combed forward as usual and he was wearing his black lab coat. "Are you trying to blend in with the wall, too?"

"I'm not _trying_ to," Mikey said. His voice was a little shriller than average for a male, but he didn't tend to talk much anyway. "I just _happen_ to."

"I see," Stevie said and took a sip of his champagne. "Amelia seems pretty excited tonight."

"Yeah," Mikey said absently. "She's been waiting a long time for something like this."

"Ms. Oates!"

Mikey turned his head and saw Arin beckoning for her to talk to him. He was slender with straight, shoulder-length brown hair that hung around his face and dark eyes that looked wild when he was working on a project with his colleagues.

"I think Arin wants to tell Amelia about the android thing we've been working on in robotics," Stevie said as he also watched them.

"Probably to offer Wheatley an android body, huh?" Mikey asked. "But Toby still gets the first one, right?"

"Of course," Stevie said. "A promise is a promise."

Arin was a little bit closer to them in the crowded room so when Amelia approached him to talk, Mikey could vaguely catch what they were saying. Arin did tell Amelia about the android project and how it was almost ready to test. Mikey smiled at how even more excited she became. She said that she couldn't find a way to repay him enough.

"I-I'll take dinner as a repayment," Arin said. "Maybe tomorrow night?"

"It's a date," Amelia said. "Thank you so much. I should be getting back to Wheatley now. I'll see you later."

Mikey's stomach twisted with dread as he watched her return to Wheatley.

"You okay?"

He turned to look at Stevie who had a slightly concerned expression.

"Yeah, of course," Mikey mumbled. "Why wouldn't I be okay? We're celebrating here."

"You just seem a little upset about Arin's dinner invitation."

"It's just dinner," Mikey said. "And why should I care? Amelia and I aren't even really friends anymore."

"Maybe you should change that," Stevie suggested. "You should go talk to her right now. Ask her how she's doing. Tell her how pretty she looks tonight."

Mikey stared at her from across the room longingly. "Pretty" was an insult. She was gorgeous.

"I'll just leave her alone," he said. "She's busy talking to Wheatley. It looks like they're talking about something serious."

"Suit yourself, kid," Stevie said. "I'm going to talk to Arin about the project. It'll be ready soon enough for Toby."

"Okay," Mikey said, and didn't even look at Stevie as he walked away.

Amelia got up and looked like she was heading for the cake table. He took a few steps away from the wall but his nerves stopped him in his tracks. What would he even say to her? After years of no real conversation between them, what could he possibly say to her?

He decided to step back to the wall and just watch her from afar.

 _Like some desperate loser,_ he thought.

 **AN: Feel free to write reviews and tell me what you think. What would you like to see happen? I have half the story written out but I'm okay with rewriting some chapters to incorporate good ideas. Thanks for reading! The reviews really mean a lot to me and make me cry when I read them! :')**


	2. Chap 2: Happy Enough

During the meeting the next morning, Mikey noticed Arin staring at Amelia from across the conference table. It made his chest ache a little to see her acting bashful about it. He barely paid attention to what Grant—the grizzly leader of their expedition into Aperture—was saying about splitting into groups and what equipment they would be bringing.

Amelia brought up how she wanted to retrieve Wheatley's AI friend Nora while they were searching for Doug Rattmann. Grant told her that their top priority was Doug and if they came across Nora they would pick her up, but leaving with Doug was more important. She seemed pretty disappointed by this and Mikey wanted to argue in Amelia's favor, but he didn't know how he could convince someone as stubborn as Grant.

Once the meeting was over, Mikey went back to his apartment. He had a large computer set up on a desk next to his couch in the living room. The computer had a high-quality camera connected to it that allowed his AI program to see the living room.

"Hey, Mikey!" Toby greeted through the HD speakers hooked up to the computer. "How did the meeting go?"

"It went fine," Mikey said broodingly. He plopped down onto his couch and picked up the old Gameboy Color that served as his only video game entertainment.

"Doesn't _sound_ like it went fine," Toby said.

"I'm just a little frustrated about Arin drooling over Amelia," Mikey said as he booted up a game. "He barely knows her. He doesn't know her like _I_ do."

"Dude, you should talk to her!" Toby said. "Invite her over sometime! I even give you permission to show me off as an ice-breaker."

"I appreciate it," Mikey said, smiling a little, "but it's not a huge deal. It's just dinner. Nothing might come of it."

"But what if something _does_ and they start dating?"

Mikey sighed heavily. "Then nothing will change," he said. "We don't even talk to each other. I'd still be staring at her from across the room and she'd still be oblivious to it."

"At least try to talk to her during the mission tomorrow," Toby said. "Come on, man. You deserve to be happy."

Mikey just shrugged. "I'm happy enough," he mumbled unconvincingly.

* * *

Around noon, Mikey ate lunch in the cafeteria at a secluded table. He moved the food around on his plate with his fork. Why had he gotten pasta salad? He should have been paying more attention to what he was picking out in the line.

He kept glancing up at the entrance, hoping to see Amelia come in for lunch today. She did happen to go through the line and have what she had gotten marked down for inventory, but then she returned to her apartment with her food. Mikey sighed heavily.

 _I wish she wouldn't lock herself in her apartment all day,_ he thought. _Even if she's not talking to me, she should be talking to somebody else. She must be so lonely most of the time._

He hated feeling so gloomy like this when he thought about Amelia. He wanted to associate her with only good feelings.

After lunch, he sulked off to one of the empty chemistry labs to see if he could whip up anything useful for the mission. Might as well do anything else but pine over the same person that he always did.

 **AN: Hey, I meant to post yesterday but I couldn't get to anywhere with internet yet. My new place is without internet for now. I want to try to post every other day. If I happen to go too many days without posting, send me a review to push me to continue. That's why I'm posting chapters before I'm totally finished with the story.**

 **Also, I promise the story will pick up in pace a bit if these first few are too slow for your liking.**


	3. Chap 3: Mikey's Request

Mikey felt a little satisfied by how Amelia and Arin were just acting friendly towards each other the morning after their date. It didn't seem like they were going steady.

He let out a wide yawn as he waited for the rest of the expedition team to arrive. The minutes were winding down and not nearly as many people showed up as there should have been. Amelia seemed irritable about this and Mikey couldn't blame her. This was her mother's work, and some people had the nerve to just stay at home without even coming up with an excuse.

 _Well,_ I'm _here for her,_ he thought. _I'll do my best to make up for the help that didn't show up._

He had packed a few extra supplies for this mission that he wanted to make use of. Hopefully Amelia would be able to appreciate this.

While he waited, he watched as Amelia talked with Arin and his friends. The girl with them—Natalie, Mikey thought her name was—hung around Amelia every once in a while, but Mikey wasn't sure she could be classified as being Amelia's friend.

 _Or maybe I'm just being territorial._

* * *

Mikey sat in a bullet train compartment with Grant, Carla, and Nate. Grant was trying to figure out how to split up into teams since a lot of people were truant. He was scribbling in a notebook, factoring in each individual's skills and how to balance the teams.

"Um, Grant?" Mikey asked. He couldn't believe he was about to ask this.

"What is it, Mikey? I'm kind of busy."

"C-Could I possibly be in a group with Amelia?"

Grant looked up at Mikey to see a hint of desperation in the young man's eyes. He knew about their past and how they'd been best friends as kids. It was obvious back then that this kid had had a crush on Amelia, and it was obvious even now as an adult.

"Yeah, I guess I can put you two in a group," he said. "Do you guys still talk?" He knew they didn't.

"Not really," Mikey said, looking down at his uniform boots. "We tried to hang out a little a few years ago but we sort of drifted away from each other."

"Well, now's your chance to talk again," Grant said. "If I put you in a group with her, you have to try to make it count. You were so cute as kids. I wanna see you two running around together again."

Nate chuckled a little. He'd been taking a nap but now he opened his eyes as he sat up in his slightly reclined seat. "You guys splitting up the groups?" he asked.

"Yeah and I guess I'm taking requests," Grant said. "Any from you?"

"Not from me," Nate said. "I'll be fine with whoever you team me up with."

"Even Alex?"

Nate grimaced slightly but shrugged his shoulders. "I'll live if I'm teamed up with him."

"Unless he deserts your team," Grant muttered. "But then he'd be in _huge_ trouble."

"I don't think he'd desert," Nate said. "If he deserts and gets injured…Hell, I'd still have to treat him. My conscience wouldn't let me get away with leaving an injured person."

Mikey leaned back and closed his eyes. Like everyone else on the bullet train, he was exhausted and just wanted to sleep for a few more hours.

"We only have fifteen minutes until we reach our stop, Mikey," Grant told him.

"I don't need long," Mikey mumbled and started to drift off to sleep. He had a simple dream about hanging out with Amelia in his apartment with his arm around her shoulders.


	4. Chap 4: Arrival at Aperture

Once the bullet train stopped, everyone piled out onto a dimly-lit platform. They were all able to fit into a large lift that slowly carried them up for about twenty minutes at a steady pace. Mikey awkwardly stood at the opposite side of the elevator from Amelia, not wanting to make things uncomfortable by being squeezed next to her in a confined space.

When the lift finally stopped, they still had to climb several flights of stairs—also dimly-lit—until they came to a ladder. Mikey's stomach filled with butterflies as he climbed the ladder. This was it. He would finally get to see the outside world after a little more than a decade of being stuck underground.

Grant punched a code into a hatch at the top of the ladder, and he threw open the hatch to let sunshine pour down on them.

"It's so warm!" Natalie practically giggled. She was always such a bubbly person.

Mikey caught a whiff of pollen even from how far down the ladder he was. "I think I smell flowers!" he said, not able to contain his excitement.

Once they were all outside, they sat in the grass for a while. It was slightly damp with morning dew. Mikey looked around and noticed that there were oddly placed bare spots between the trees. It looked as though clusters of trees had been uprooted. Some of the trees that were left appeared to have been blown down by some sort of small explosions. New plants grew around them, though, with tiny purple flowers surrounding the trunks of the trees.

Almost everybody eventually started exploring the area, but Mikey was too distracted by how Amelia lied in the grass with a small smile on her face. She looked so peaceful, and he wanted nothing more than to lie down next to her.

Grant tried to get everyone to keep moving, but Carla pointed out the soft sound of running water. Arin was the first to follow the sound, soon followed by everybody else. They came to a small stream that flowed through the forest. A few of them copied Jon when he took off his shoes to wade in the stream. Mikey settled for feeling the water gently run around his hand as he dipped it in the water. It felt fresh and cold, reminding him that it was still only spring.

* * *

When they finally got moving again, it took them quite a long time to actually get to Aperture. When they did, the building was surprisingly underwhelming. It was about the size of a high school and looked extremely plain. There was a chain-link fence all around the building with razor wire curled at the top that appeared to be electrified.

"Is that it?" asked Sophie. "That's the Aperture Enrichment Center?"

"Don't let your guard down," Grant said. "For all we know, that rogue computer is still activated in there. Let's head for the lobby."

They walked around to the front gate where Grant used bolt cutters to make a hole in the fence. Their first problem came with the lobby door which seemed to be locked from the inside.

"Now what do we do?" Patty asked. "Should we try to pry it open?"

"No, these locks are too strong for that," Grant said. "It looks like it's been deadbolted. We'll have to focus on that."

"Let me handle this," said Alex. He was tall, cocky, and was always trying to flirt with girls even if they clearly weren't interested. He winked at Natalie before running straight at the door and attempted to break it down with his shoulder. Natalie rolled her eyes when he yelped out in pain. "Goddamnit! Stupid fucking door!"

"Will you shut up?" Nate grumbled "Here, let me take a look at yer arm." He gently prodded Alex's shoulder with his fingers as he inspected the socket joint. Alex winced a bit, but Nate announced that the kid appeared to have no damage done to the shoulder except for "one hell of a bruise."

Mikey suddenly remembered one of the extra items he'd brought, and he wondered if it might be of use here. He mustered up all the courage that he could before speaking.

"May I try something? I've been brushing up on my chemistry and I—"

"Wait, why were you brushing up on your chemistry?" Sophie—a spunky girl with an attitude problem—asked. "You belong in the computer lab, not the _chemistry_ lab."

"Well, it's extremely boring down there when you're just staring at a computer screen all day," Mikey muttered crossly. "I mean, I love programming and all, but I had to do something else down there to keep my sanity so I went to chemistry. Anyway, while I was in the lab yesterday, I decided that it would be a good idea to whip up some industrial acids. I've constructed this special spray bottle that has a coating of a chemical on the inside that serves as a strong barrier between the acid and the thick plastic of the bottle. This is just a prototype of the acid so I can't guarantee anything. I'll spray the deadbolt lock and see if it works."

He pulled a plastic bag out of his backpack that seemed to have an ordinary spray bottle in it. He couldn't help but notice everybody's skeptic expressions as he slipped on a pair of thick leather gloves. Carefully. he pulled the spray bottle out of the plastic bag and warned everyone to stay back before spraying a foul-smelling liquid onto the lock. He was surprised as the acid not only dissolved the deadbolt but also the entire door. Luckily, it stopped just a little after eating away the doorframe.

"Geez, Mikey," Arin said with an impressed smile. "Way to go!" He patted Mikey on the back who tried not to let his annoyance show on his face. He didn't need a condescending pat on the back from anyone.

Grant was the first to go through the hole. As everyone followed, Mikey looked around at the immense lobby. It looked like the walls had once been covered with white tiles, but there were several that had fallen to the dirty floor. There were plants creeping out of the gaps in the walls that the missing tiles had made. Mikey approached one of the plants and examined it as he turned the leaves over in his hands. The vines were thicker than normal and the leaves seemed to be _too_ green.

"What the hell happened here?" Grant asked. "It's only been fifteen years since Bring Your Daughter to Work Day."

"Can plants grow that fast?" Nate asked.

"Doesn't matter," Mikey said, seeming for forget his shyness. "These plants look like they've been enhanced in some way. Aperture probably made some kind of growth serum and it got to the plants somehow."

"Wow, Mikey," Amelia said. "You're really on your A-game today."

Mikey's heart beat hard against his ribcage from Amelia's praise. He smiled nervously and pushed his glasses back up his nose. Why was he sweating so much?

"Okay, everyone gather around," Grant said. "First, I want to hand out these bottles of antipsychotic pills. If or when we run into Rattmann, he needs to get a clear mind as soon as possible." He handed a bottle of pills to each person, and then took his place in front of the group again. "Since we're missing so many people we'll have to change the groups a bit," Grant said. "I'll be in a group with Sophie and Trent. We'll be Group A. Chief Oates, Patty, and Mikey will be together in Group B. Arin, Jon, and Natalie are in Group C. And finally, Alex, Nate, and Carla will make up Group D."

Everyone got into their groups. Mikey awkwardly stood near Amelia but kept a few feet of distance between them. Arin seemed disappointed that he wasn't in a group with Amelia, and Mikey tried to hide how smug he felt about it.

"Okay, everyone keep your communicators on for emergencies," Grant said. "Group A will head toward the administrative offices. Group B will head toward manufacturing. Group C should look around the testing areas, and Group D should check the examination rooms."


	5. Chap 5: Separation Anxiety

Mikey, Amelia, and Patty went through the door to manufacturing and faced a hallway of more doors.

"Which door should we go through?" Amelia wondered aloud.

Patty examined the signs of each door. She was a middle-aged woman with graying blonde hair who appeared quite motherly at times and quite cross at others.

"I like the sound of Edgeless Safety Cubes," she said. "It sounds…safe."

"I agree," Mikey chimed in. "It sounds safer than sentry turrets."

"Okay," Amelia said. "Edgeless Safety Cubes it is."

They opened the door and entered a vast room that stretched on farther than Mikey could see. There were strange machines on the walls with little lights that dimly lit a metal catwalk with rails to either side that was suspended from the low ceiling. Mikey looked down through the grated catwalk and regretted it when he couldn't see the floor to the room. The catwalk seemed to slope down slightly into the dark void below.

The trio looked at each other uneasily. Despite the gentle idea of "Edgeless Safety Cubes", the darkness made this decision seem much more daunting.

"Well, let's go," Patty said. "Otherwise we'll be in here for days." She started walking, shortly followed by the other two.

As they walked down the catwalk, Mikey kept stealing glances at Amelia. She seemed completely oblivious to this as she looked around at the twinkling lights. They seemed to serve as a backdrop of stars to create a romantic atmosphere. Although, the romantic feeling might have just been Mikey's affection towards her. Either way, Amelia looked beautiful right now.

His attention was drawn away from her when they came across large glass tubes that carried spherical objects through them. These spheres were lit up with LED lights built into them that added an ominous glow around the trio. They continued along the catwalk until it became more compact with industrial machines to either side of them that were constructing the spheres in a brisk, efficient manner. The machines were lit up with bright lights to display the work that they conducted.

 _When did the catwalk level out?_ Mikey wondered as he looked behind them. He'd been so preoccupied with staring at Amelia that he hadn't even noticed when they stopped descending. He turned back to the machines and watched one quickly construct a sphere and package it up within fifteen seconds.

"These must be those Edgeless Safety Cubes," he said. "Do you think we should take one for examination back in the labs?"

"They're sort of big, aren't they?" Amelia asked. "It would be difficult to carry them."

"We'll use one of our nets," Mikey suggested. " _I_ could carry it."

"Are you sure, dear?" Patty asked. "No offense, but you're a bit small and I don't want you straining yourself."

"I'll be fine," Mikey insisted. "Just let me carry it." He used a sharper tone than he'd meant to and he hoped Amelia didn't think he was angry or something.

He slid his backpack off of his shoulders and quickly found his net in it. He probably wouldn't have used it for its intended use anyway. Then he looked over to the closest machine. "Now, how do we get one?" he asked.

Amelia got closer to the machine that Mikey was looking at and studied it as it assembled one of the spheres and packaged it before sending it off through a glass tube above the machine. She watched another one be made before reaching in and snatching it away before it could be packaged. The machine ended up sending away an empty box.

"Oh," Mikey said plainly. "That was pretty easy."

Amelia shrugged a little and she carried the sphere back to her teammates. It seemed quite heavy as she appeared to struggle a little with holding it. Mikey wasn't much stronger but he took it out of her hands—careful not to make skin contact—so that he could place it in his net. He pulled the mouth of the net up over his shoulder and heaved the sphere partially onto his back.

"God! This is heavy!" he exclaimed without thinking.

"Are you sure you can carry that?" Amelia asked with concern.

"Of course, Chief Oates." He felt stupid about addressing her so formally. He was already starting to sweat again and he had to slide his glasses back up his nose. "I can't make _you_ carry it. Shall we carry on?"

They continued on their way down the catwalk. Mikey was starting to get the hang of carrying the sphere and it was enough to distract him from staring at Amelia constantly.

When they came to a fork in the catwalk, Mikey took the opportunity to set down the sphere so that he could stretch. The catwalk continued three different ways and each path seemed to get darker further down.

"Which way do you guys think we should go?" Amelia asked.

"Well, if we go down one path, we might end up missing Doug," Patty said.

"But we shouldn't split up," Mikey chimed in. "It's too risky."

"We have our communicators," Patty pointed out.

"It's still not safe!" Mikey said, his voice going up more in pitch. He couldn't stand the idea of Amelia having to go off on her own in this place. "We shouldn't be separated from each other. We're stronger in numbers."

"I agree," Amelia said. "We need to stick together."

Mikey couldn't help himself from smiling gratefully at her as he hoisted the sphere up onto his back again.

"This could be a mistake," Patty said.

"If it is, I'll take the blame," Amelia said. "Let's go down the left path first."

She led them down the left path and the lights grew dimmer down the track. The sphere glowed on Mikey's back, now serving as the brightest light around them. The women got their flashlights out of their packs to light up the catwalk in front of them.

It wasn't too long until they came across a door frame at the end of the catwalk. Amelia approached it so that she could inspect it properly. Mikey noted the heavy metal bolts along the frame like you'd see around the rim of a hatch on a submarine. It led into a tiny room with an electronic vault door on the other side that blocked their path.

"Let me check this out real quick," Amelia said. "I want to see if there's some way to open the vault from the inside."

"Allow me to help," Patty said.

"There isn't enough room for more than one person," Amelia pointed out.

"Alright, suit yourself," Patty said.

Mikey grew ever more anxious as Amelia entered the tiny room to inspect the door. What if the door opened and a killer robot was on the other side? She knocked on the metal and Mikey flinched a little.

"I don't think we—"

Amelia was cut off as the first vault door slammed down behind her.

"Amelia! No! Nononononono!"

Mikey dropped the sphere and ran over to pound furiously on the door. Patty grabbed him before he could reach it, though, and attempted to shush him.

"Mikey, don't draw attention to us!" Patty said in a loud whisper.

"Stop! Let go of me!" Mikey demanded as he struggled in her surprisingly firm grip. "Oh god! We need to get to Amelia!" Tears were already streaming down his face as his breathing became more rapid. "We need to—get her—out!" Now he was gasping for breath as he tried to control his sobbing. "I—" gasp "I think I'm h-having—" gasp "—a p-panic attack—"

Patty lowered him to the ground and gently rubbed his back as he continued to gasp for air. He couldn't get ahold of himself. Guilt washed over him and made his stomach churn. Amelia was all alone now in this vast, dangerous slaughterhouse. He should've been the one to inspect the door. He should've kept closer to her. He should've tried to talk to her more. He should've confessed his feelings for her. But it could be too late now.

"Mikey, take slow, deep breaths," Patty instructed calmly. "It's okay. We'll find her."

"The c-communicators—"

He started to rummage through his pack but Patty stopped him.

"No, that's a bad idea, Mikey," Patty said. "What if she's trying to hide and the sound from her communicator gives away her position?"

Mikey sobbed harder as he curled up in Patty's lap. He felt like he was going to be sick with each shaking gasp.


	6. Chap 6: Relief

Mikey breathed deeply but his mind was going a million miles an hour. Scenarios of what could happen to Amelia while she was alone played through his head. What if she was thrown down into the void below the catwalk? What if she was squished with spikey plates like how Wheatley had described? What if she was forced to perform tests? She could die of exhaustion or dehydration.

 _I need to stop thinking like that,_ he insisted to himself. _I can't just assume that she's already dead._

Patty had insisted that they head back for the lobby until they could really figure out what to do. Mikey was lying out on top of one of the secretarial desks as he stared up at the broken ceiling. His mind eventually started to clear up until he was left with a blank, numb silence. This felt a little better despite the mild depression he felt.

He sighed as he reached up and rubbed his eyes. They were sore from all of the crying he'd done and his lungs ached from all of the gasping during his panic attack. What hurt the most, though, was the fact that he'd really wanted to try to talk to Amelia again during this mission. He'd finally decided to make an effort again.

Hours went by until Grant called over the radio for a check-in from everyone. Mikey scrambled up from the desk and suffered from head-rush as Patty answered the call.

"Patty and Mikey here," she said. "We've been separated from Amelia, and we don't know where she is. Over."

"Wait, what?" Arin suddenly came on. "What happened? Did she get caught?! Uh, over."

"I think she _did_ get caught," Patty said. This made Mikey's stomach twist with dread. "She was examining a sort of small transitioning chamber when the door shut between us. We had no way to open it. Over."

Arin was rambling anxiously as Jon tried to calm him down.

"Arin, get ahold of yourself," Grant said. "We'll find her but we need to stay calm and be rational about this. Patty, where did you get separated? Over."

"A little past the Edgeless Safety Cube manufacturing," she said. "Over."

"Maybe we can try to search around there!" Arin said excitedly. "She's probably still in that general area, right? In manufacturing? O-Over?"

"Arin, it's been hours," Patty pointed out. "She could be anywhere by now."

Now Arin was swearing in the background as Jon apologized for him.

"He's just a little worked up. He'll be fiiiiine," Jon said. "He's just gotta let off some steam."

Mikey rolled his eyes at this in annoyance, completely forgetting the fact that he hadn't reacted any better to this.

"What should we do right now?!" Arin asked, supposedly taking the communicator back from Jon. "Should we go out and search for her?! Should we try to find the security room and find her _that_ way?!"

"That's actually not a bad idea," Grant said. "But who would do it? We don't even know where—"

"I'll find it!" Arin interrupted. "My team can go looking for it! We'll be super, extra careful! I promise!"

"Well, excuse me!" Natalie could be heard in the background. "I don't remember you asking us that!"

"You're really going to deny helping me search for our leader?!" Arin demanded frantically.

"Oh my god, will you all shut up?!" Sophie growled. "This isn't helping anything!"

"Listen, nobody is diverging from the plan," Grant said. "We all need to keep searching in our designated areas. We're on a search party for two people now. Again, try to keep the airwaves quiet until the next check-in call. Over and out."

With that finality, Patty turned to look at Mikey. "What do you suppose we should do?"

"Don't ask _me_ ," Mikey mumbled. "I'm not a leader. I can't handle being put under pressure like this."

"Do you think we should head back into manufacturing and check another part of the facility?" Patty asked. She stood up and paced around the lobby.

"Sure, I guess. I don't care."

"Are you okay?" Patty asked, her maternal instinct kicking in.

"I don't know," Mikey said quietly. "Probably not."

Patty took him in her arms for a warm hug. He could feel his eyes prickling again, but he fought to keep back tears. Crying was so embarrassing.

* * *

They cautiously wandered through the Weighted Storage Cube manufacturing wing. These were roughly built in a similar fashion to the Edgeless Safety Cubes. Mikey kept a watchful eye out for Amelia, and he noticed that Grant had sent a message out to everyone on the communicators reminding them to look for her as well as Doug Rattmann. As if Mikey needed a reminder.

They didn't find her in the Weighted Storage Cube area so they started to head back toward the hallway. Mikey felt dread weighing down in the pit of his stomach. What if they couldn't find her? What if they had to leave with her here?

 _Screw that!_ he thought. _There's no way I'd leave her in here! I'd sooner die than leave her in danger!_

"This is Grant calling for a check-in again."

Patty took her communicator out of her pocket and held it up as the other teams sounded off. Arin still sounded in distress as he confirmed that everyone in his team was safe.

"Team B reporting in," Patty said. "We still haven't seen any sign of Amelia being around."

Arin groaned a little but said nothing.

"Well, it is getting late so maybe we should start thinking about—"

"We should've started thinking about this when we first found out about it!" Arin grumbled. "Something could've happened to her by now!"

"Listen," Nate said. "Gettin' all worked up like this ain't gonna help anything."

"He's right," Grant agreed. "Panicking will only make things worse. Now if we need to we can—"

"A-Amelia here. Don't worry, Mikey and Patty. I'm alright. Over."

The relief that washed over Mikey was overwhelming. A huge grin spread across his face, and as tears filled his eyes again he laughed a little.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! WE'VE BEEN WORRIED SICK!" Arin immediately replied.

"I'm alright," Amelia reassured. "I just got separated and had a brief run-in with GLaDOS. But I found Doug Rattmann so there's some good news. Over."

"You've already found Rattmann?" Grant asked. "Are you both safe? What's your location? Over."

"We're in some air ducts," Amelia replied. "Doug seems to know what we're doing so I think we're safe. Over."

"Well, it's getting late," Grant said. "Try to find somewhere to get some rest and we'll regroup in the lobby tomorrow morning. Over."

There was a brief pause before Amelia said that she'd head toward the lobby in the morning.

"Be more careful!" Arin pleaded anxiously. "Make sure you get back in one piece…Over."

"Don't worry about me, Arin. I'm in safe hands. Over and out."

Everybody else confirmed that they would start heading for the lobby in the morning and the conversation ended for the night. Patty looked over to Mikey and couldn't help but smile when she saw his happy tears.

"Do you feel a little better now?" she asked.

He nodded. "A lot better."


	7. Chap 7: Homework

Mikey had a very restless night in Aperture. Even though he knew that Amelia was okay, he still worried about her getting caught. He constantly waited for some kind of call over the communicator from Amelia saying that she was in trouble. He managed to drift in and out sleep for a few hours as he slept in the lobby under a desk.

 _Why are all of my thoughts constantly about Amelia?_ he wondered. Then he answered himself with, _Because most of my life has revolved around her. My life has been all about trying to impress her, trying to talk to her, trying to make her happy, trying to be around her as much as I can without bothering her. Is that pathetic? Is something wrong with me? Most people don't hold on to a childhood crush well into their twenties…right?_

He remembered having a similar thought when he was a teenager. He and all of the other teens had been taught by a handful of uncertified "teachers" that they had in the compound. Most of them didn't know how to teach a bunch of kids but they eventually got the hang of it.

A particular memory floated into his mind. He'd been sitting in the designated cafeteria for the schoolkids. It had been (and still was) just a room away from the normal cafeteria for everyone else.

He'd been staring at Amelia from afar as he leaned against his elbow on the table. Even then, he'd been a little bit of a creep with how often he stared at her. He hadn't gotten used to it by that point, though, so he felt a painful longing towards her. It hadn't been too long since she had disowned him as a friend—only a handful of years.

Then she'd suddenly looked around and her gaze landed right on him. He'd known that there was a dreamy look on his face and she had to have noticed it. Quickly, he'd looked down at his open book next to his food tray and pretended to have been reading all along. He'd known that this couldn't have fooled her, though.

He'd looked back up to see her still looking at him. She'd given him such a sweet, shy smile. He'd offered a nervous one in return.

Then she'd stood up and approached his table.

 _Oh god, why is she coming over?_ he had questioned in his head as she'd made her way around all of the other tables. _Did I make her uncomfortable? Is she coming over to tell me to stop staring at her or to ask_ why _I was staring at her?_

He hadn't watched her as she approached his table. He'd looked back down at his book, still pretending to read.

"Hi," Amelia had greeted him quietly.

"Oh, um, hey," Mikey had said, acting as though he hadn't noticed her until she'd spoken.

"How have you been?" she'd asked, sitting down across from him. Back then she hadn't started wearing her hair back in a bun but instead, a more casual ponytail.

"I've been okay," he'd answered. "W-What about you?"

"I've been okay, too." Her smile had faded, making Mikey nervous about what could have been going through her head. Maybe she actually _had_ come over to tell him to stop staring at her. "Um…..Sorry about your mom."

Mikey's eyebrows had risen at this. "Oh, yeah…..Uh…..Yeah….."

"Sorry I brought it up," Amelia had said, starting to stand. "That was thoughtless—"

"Wait! Don't go!" Mikey had pleaded. "Don't feel bad about it. It happened a couple of years ago. Plenty of people have died during scouting missions." He'd felt bad about saying this, thinking that it sounded like he hadn't cared about his mother's death.

"I still shouldn't have brought it up," Amelia had said. She'd sat back down, though, and had laced her fingers together on the table. "It's just…..I can't exactly say that I know how you feel because our circumstances are different…But I know how it feels to lose a parent." Her voice had gotten very quiet with this last part, and her gaze had fallen down to her folded hands.

"Yeah, um, it's okay," he'd said. "Really. Uh, so how have you been doing on homework? I'm not doing so great in English."

"Oh?" Amelia had looked back up at him with a spark in her eyes. "English class is my forte. That and art. I can help you with English if you can help me with…..math." She seemed to have struggled to think of a subject, and Mikey had immediately become apprehensive of this.

"Sure," he'd said. "If you wanna get your homework out, I can help you right now if that's okay."

Amelia had rummaged through her backpack that sat next to her on the long bench until she'd pulled out her math book. She'd opened it up to a page that was held by loose-leaf paper with some problems already done. She'd moved it across the table and sat next to him. His heart had pounded so hard in his chest as he felt her so close to him. He could've practically smelled the shampoo she'd washed her hair with.

"Uh, w-what do you need help with?" he'd asked her while trying not to seem like such a spaz.

"All of it."

Mikey had studied the problems that she'd already done. "It looks like you did these first few correctly."

"Well, I need help with all of the other ones."

It was at this point that he'd been sure that she hadn't needed any help with her homework. Still, he'd gone through a few of the equations and showed her how to solve them. It seemed like she'd barely been listening, though. He'd started to wonder if maybe she'd just wanted an excuse to be around him.

 _Hell, I'll take it!_ he'd thought.

Mikey was wrenched out of his trip down memory lane as the lobby door opened. He hurried out from under the desk and was greatly disappointed to see that it was only Grant, Trent, and Sophie. Grant looked around and the hope fell off of his face.

"I'm guessing Amelia hasn't shown up yet," he said.

"No," Patty said. "Sorry."

"I'm sure she's fine," Grant said. "I'm just a little anxious about it."

"That's perfectly reasonable," Patty said. "You raised her for practically her whole life."

Grant sat down on the dirty floor and leaned back against the wall. Sophie and Trent picked random spots to sit in the lobby. Sophie chatted with Patty about different parts of the facility they'd seen. Trent was a pretty quiet guy so he just sat in silence. There was a moment where he met eyes with Mikey and just nodded in acknowledgment. Mikey nodded back.


	8. Chap 8: Amelia's Return

Mikey sat cross-legged on top of the desk that he had practically claimed as his own. He was getting pretty impatient to see Amelia safe and sound. He just needed to be sure she was okay.

Trent and Sophie had decided to sit with Grant on the floor to help distract him from his worrying. Patty came over to Mikey and leaned against the desk.

"How are you doing?" she asked him.

Mikey shrugged. "I'm fine," he said. "Just bored."

"You don't look bored," Patty said. "You look pretty anxious to me."

"I am. Our leader is still in danger until she gets here."

"Oh, is _that_ what this is about?" she asked, giving him a knowing look. "It's not because you have a crush on her?"

Mikey hopped down from the desk and shushed her. "Come on, I don't want her to know."

"I think she's oblivious to it, hon," she said. "And I won't say anything to her. I wouldn't dare."

The door finally opened again, and Amelia walked through with Doug in tow. Nate, Carla, and Alex weren't far behind, shutting the door behind them. Grant scrambled up to greet her.

"Amelia! You're alright!" he exclaimed. "And you have Doug Rattmann with you! What is that that you're holding, Rattmann?"

There was a strange device that Doug was holding in both of his hands. It was sleek with a white chassis and a strange orange glow at the end of it. Nate, Carla, and Alex were wearing odd orange jumpsuits and springy-looking leg braces.

"It's an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device," Nate answered for Doug.

Grant looked down at Nate's arm and that's when Mikey noticed it, too. There was a bandage wrapped around his forearm. "What happened?" Grant asked.

"I just got cut on my arm is all," Nate said. "I'll be alright. Doug did a great job of sewin' me up."

Grant looked to Doug again who was looking around at all of the strangers. He briefly met eyes with Mikey who felt just a little bit uncomfortable. Doug didn't look to be at all mentally healthy. His hair and beard were so scruffy, and his lab coat was a colorful mess.

"Well, thank you, Doug," Grant said, reaching out and shaking Doug's hand. "It's an honor to meet you. My name is Grant Muller."

Doug gave Grant a blank, almost confused expression. "Uh, nice to meet you, too," he said quietly.

Grant turned to address Nate again. "How did you get cut anyway, Nate?" he asked.

"Well, GLaDOS got ahold of us and put us through tests," Nate explained. "I know we were supposed to be checkin' the examination rooms, but Alex thought that we might find Amelia and Doug if we crawled through the air vents to get from one room to the other. The idiot got us lost, though, and we ended up in a room where we were knocked out with some sort of sleepin' gas. Next thing we knew, we were in stasis pods and had these jumpsuits. We were also given these portal devices."

"You can't say that nothing good came out of this," Alex grumbled.

Now Grant turned to Amelia. "Just out of curiosity," Grant said, "where did you find Doug, Chief Oates?"

"Well, I was trying to get away from GLaDOS by crawling through the air vents when I ran into Doug," Amelia said. She seemed kind of awkward talking about it.

"I made sure she was safe," Doug said quietly. "My hideouts are completely out of GLaDOS' reach."

"It's a good thing she happened to run into you," Grant said.

The door suddenly opened again and Arin stepped through. He stopped when he saw Amelia, though. "Amelia!" he exclaimed, and ran forward to trap her in a hug. Doug awkwardly stepped away and looked around the room. He met eyes with Mikey again who felt just as awkward about Arin showing this much affection toward Amelia.

"I was so worried about you!" Arin continued to gush.

"I don't mean to alarm you but you might break my ribs with this hug," Amelia said.

Arin let go of her and she turned to Jon and Natalie. She started talking with them, but Mikey was a little distracted by how uncomfortable Doug seemed. He wanted to go over and say something. He wanted to express to Amelia how worried he'd been. He wanted to say _anything_ , but he just stood around quietly like he wasn't even there. As per usual.

Grant suddenly asked Doug how long it had been since he was outside.

"Over a decade, I think," Doug answered quietly.

"Let's go out to the grass, Doug," Amelia said. "You're going to be surprised how much you missed it."

Doug smiled. "Oh, you have no idea."

Everyone made sure that they had everything while Mikey awkwardly opened the drawers of the desk he'd gotten so familiar with. He opened one of the bottom drawers and was intrigued by a strange metal headband. He considered taking it for a moment, but then he decided against it. What use could it be? It was probably scrap metal.

They all headed back for the train tunnel, taking their time but keeping alert of any possible Combine soldiers around. It only took them thirty minutes to get back. Doug set down a bedsheet that he'd been carrying something heavy and boxy in. Then he lied down in the grass and seemed to just take in everything around him. Nate asked if he was okay and Doug just nodded.

"I'm going to go back to that stream," Patty said. "If anyone wants to join me they can."

Mikey followed everyone else but didn't realize that Amelia hadn't followed until they got to the stream. He looked back and could see Amelia sitting in the grass next to Doug. Being careful not to be noticed, Mikey crept closer to them, hiding behind trees and straining to hear what they were saying. It seemed that all of his years being unnoticeable were working to his advantage now.

He got close enough to just barely hear what was being said. He heard Doug give an apology for kissing her earlier and his heart sank. Doug had kissed Amelia? Why? Why would he do something like that? His heart sank even lower when he heard Amelia mention that it had been her first kiss.

Mikey hadn't known that she'd never kissed anyone before.

He felt a sickening jealousy overcome him as he slid down the tree trunk he hid behind to sit in the grass. He stared down and ripped up individual blades of grass as he tried to take this in. What did this mean? Was she dating Doug now or something? She'd just met him!

"Yo, Mikey," Arin said as he walked up to him. "You okay? You don't look so good."

"I don't _feel_ so good, either," Mikey mumbled.

Arin sat down cross-legged in front of him. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

Mikey shook his head. "Thanks, though."

"Well, hey, that android project is pretty close to being done," Arin said optimistically. "Stevie is probably working on it as we speak. I bet Toby's itching to get into one of the droids."

Mikey sighed a little and finally looked up at Arin, but he noticed that Arin was looking past him at Amelia talking with Doug.

"What do you suppose _they're_ talking about?" Arin asked quietly.

Mikey shrugged. "Could be anything."


	9. Chap 9: Toby Comforts

When Mikey got home from the mission, he changed into a pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt. Toby noticed that he was moping around and kept asking what was wrong but Mikey ignored him.

"Mikey, please talk to me!" Toby begged. "You're making me worry."

"Sorry I designed you that way then," Mikey mumbled as he dropped himself down onto his loveseat.

"Mikey." Toby's tone was a lot sterner now. "Stop it. Stop moping around like this. This is about Amelia, isn't it? When are you just going to talk to her—"

"I tried!" Mikey snapped at the computer. "I did! I tried to talk more around her, I managed to get in a group with her, I even tried to impress her with chivalry! But she kissed someone else in Aperture! Someone she just met!"

"You're going to need to explain that to me because I'm so confused."

Mikey told Toby everything that he'd heard Doug and Amelia talk about. He mentioned the apology for the kiss and the fact that it was Amelia's first and how _he'd_ wanted to be the one to kiss her first.

"And they just acted so….friendly toward each other," he concluded. "Maybe a little _too_ friendly."

"Sounds to me like you're blowing this out of proportion," Toby said. "Sounds like Doug got a little carried away and did something he regretted later so he apologized for it."

"I don't know…."

Mikey picked up his Gameboy from the coffee table and flipped it on.

"Aren't you going to get lunch or early dinner?" Toby asked.

"I'm not hungry."

"Come on, man. Don't be like this."

"Do you want me to go into my room and ignore you?" Mikey threatened. He instantly regretted this, though. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm just frustrated. I'm really not hungry, though. If I get hungry, I promise I'll go eat."

There were a few minutes where the only sound in the apartment was the 8-bit music from Mikey's game.

"So what was it like in there?" Toby asked curiously.

"In Aperture?" Mikey asked. "It was pretty big. And dark. With a dash of malice to it."

"Oh yeah, that's a really romantic setting you just described," Toby joked. "No wonder they kissed."

Mikey rolled his eyes at this and sighed.

"Okay, I can't joke about it yet. Got it. So what was the surface like?"

"Green," Mikey said. "And fresh. I could smell the flowers pollenating for spring."

"That sounds nice," Toby said. "I hope I can join you up there when I finally have a body."

"Yeah, it would be nice to go back up there," Mikey said. "Maybe we can do that soon."

"And I wanna meet this girl that's been plaguing your heart for as far back as my memory goes."

Mikey smiled a little but said nothing.

"You know I plan on teasing you about it mercilessly once I can finally follow you around, right?"

"You better not," Mikey warned. "It'd be a shame if I actually had to mute you."

"I don't need a voice to tease you," Toby claimed. "I'd make faces at you and nudge you whenever she's around."

Mikey just smiled a little bit more. He was looking forward to having a friend that could eat with him at lunch.

 **AN: If you're disappointed by the shorter chapters, I'm sorry. I hope you understand that if I tried to drag out the chapters, they wouldn't come out right. Thanks for reading.**


	10. Chap 10: Card Game

Toby was temporarily turned off while Mikey worked on him. He wanted to make sure that everything was right with the AI before putting him in an android body. He was getting pretty excited about the whole thing. The reason that he'd created Toby to begin with was to have a friend in the underground facility before he went crazy from being lonely. Their friendship was kind of limited, though, since he could only interact with his friend in his own apartment. But now Toby would be able to go to the cafeteria with him and the labs and anywhere else that they wanted.

 _I wonder what Amelia will think of him,_ Mikey thought. _He's not perfect but he's pretty good at using idioms and expressing simulated emotions. I'm lucky to have found that code that simulates emotions for AIs. It wasn't easy to get right._

After a while, Mikey tested the code and everything seemed to be running smoothly. He started Toby back up who was grateful for the adjustments.

"I'm just gonna take a nap for an hour or two," Mikey said. "I feel like I didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Okay, but don't be gone too long," Toby said. "I get bored easily."

"Fair enough."

Mikey shuffled to his room and took off his jeans before getting under the covers. He closed his eyes but couldn't fall asleep right away. His mind was wandering towards Amelia once again. He thought about their time in Aperture and what he'd said while there.

 _I really should've made a point to be more personal with her,_ he thought. _It's not exactly like we're strangers to each other._

Even after their falling-out as kids, Amelia had started talking to him a little more in high school. After they had both reached adulthood, Amelia actually asked if he'd wanted to hang out. Mikey could still feel the elation as he remembered when she'd asked him to hang out. He'd gotten all flustered and tidied everything in his apartment in anticipation of her arrival.

He had been stressing over thinking of an activity for them to do that couldn't be construed as being romantic. He'd just wanted a nice, platonic thing to do with her as friends. That's all he'd really wanted. He'd told himself that he didn't _need_ to be her boyfriend. He'd mostly just wanted to be talking to her again.

When she had arrived, he had welcomed her inside and led her to his small dining table. He'd asked if he could get her anything to drink and she'd settled on a glass of apple juice. His hands had been shaking as he'd poured the juice into the glass, almost spilling it on his counter.

After bringing the juice over, he'd sat across from her at the table. He'd set out boxes on the table that were only a few inches in height. Amelia had been eyeing them curiously before he'd sat down across from her.

"Okay, so, um, I-I thought of something fun we could do," Mikey had stammered. "There's this really neat trading card game that's kinda old. Like, from the early 90s."

He opened one of the long boxes and revealed a collection of trading cards. They were neatly sorted into different types by slips of paper between random cards.

"These are my white cards," Mikey said. "There are five colors for five different ways to play. White is for healing, green is for boosting your creatures, blue is more for controlling your opponent, red is for burning through your opponent's life quickly, and black is used for hurting your opponent as much as possible—even if it means you need to sacrifice one of your own creatures and pay some health to do so. I think you'd like white but you can choose whatever color you want. Oh, and there are colorless cards that are mostly artifacts that help you in all sorts of ways."

Amelia had stared at him blankly for a few moments before asking, "So is this like Pokémon or something?"

"Uh, I-I don't know," Mikey had said nervously. "I never actually learned how to play the card game."

"To be honest, neither did I," Amelia had admitted with a sheepish smile. Mikey had smiled back.

He'd shown her how the game worked and how to build a deck. He'd worked with her to construct a white deck that created human tokens for fighting and angels with the evasive ability "flying".

As Amelia had gotten the hang of it, Mikey started to go easy on her less. He'd started to get a little competitive, and he still felt that that was why they had started to hang out less until they were no longer talking anymore. He'd gone back to being mopey and staring at her from far away.

 _I'm not gonna let that happen again,_ he vowed as he slowly started to drift to sleep. _I swear if I can get her to hang out with me again, I'll let_ her _choose the activity._


	11. Chapt 11: Mikey's Envy

Mikey's nap had gone well into the night. He finally awoke around five the next morning. He'd slept for twelve full hours yet he still felt exhausted. He spent most of his morning playing on his Gameboy Color. Then he worked on Toby for a little while. He decided to skip breakfast, not feeling very hungry anyway.

When he reactivated Toby, the AI pointed out how late in the day it already was. "Have you even eaten yet today?" Toby asked.

"Not yet," Mikey admitted. "I haven't been that hungry, though."

"You still need to eat something," Toby pointed out. "And you need to stop cooping yourself up in here all the time. Once I'm in my body, I'm gonna drag you around everywhere and force you to socialize."

"How did you become so extroverted?" Mikey wondered aloud.

"Human interaction is important," Toby said. "I know that much and that's enough to convince me that you need more of it. Listen, it's almost time for lunch. Go to the cafeteria and eat or I won't stop bugging you about it."

Mikey rolled his eyes. "So bossy," he muttered.

"I swear I'm going to turn you into an extrovert if it's the last thing I do," Toby vowed.

"That's not really something you can change so easily, but if you do manage it, I'll have the lab guys upgrade your body to have lasers."

"Oh, it's on now!" Toby said excitedly. "Hope you're ready to become the most popular guy underground!"

* * *

Mikey regretted going to the cafeteria for lunch. He sat at a table by himself as usual. He looked around and noticed that Arin was also sitting alone.

 _That's really weird,_ Mikey thought. _Where's Jon or Natalie? He's usually chatting away with them._

It was almost unnatural to see Arin alone, and he almost considered joining him until Arin suddenly left his food at the table. Mikey was just noticing that Arin held one of those strange devices from Aperture when he realized that he was approaching Amelia and Wheatley in line. More regret seeped into him.

Arin held Wheatley in the air with some unseen force— _Maybe with magnetic force?_ Mikey wondered—and carried the construct back to his table. Mikey's table was just close enough so that he could hear them talking.

"Soon I won't need to be carried around," Wheatley was saying. "I can't wait to be able to walk around _wherever_ and _whenever_ I want!"

"You know this is going to completely change your life, right?" Arin asked with a grin. "Are you ready for that?"

"Of course I am!" Wheatley exclaimed. "I'm ready for anything! I'll be able to eat, right?"

"Yeah, you'll be able to eat and drink and pretty much do whatever a human can do. Aside from using a toilet, that is. You won't have a need for that."

"Ugh! Is it almost done?!" Wheatley seemed to have not heard the last part of what Arin said. "It's got to be almost done, right?! I hate waiting!"

"It's just not ready yet," Arin said as Amelia came up to the table with Nate in tow. "There are still a few details to iron out, but I promise it will be done soon."

"Listen to Arin, Wheatley," Amelia said as she sat down. "You don't want to be walking around in a faulty body."

"But we _want_ him to have the real human experience, don't we?" Arin said with a grin.

Nate sat down with them and they talked about how his arm was doing. Nate praised Doug for his handiwork and Wheatley immediately got annoyed with this. He complained about how everyone seemed to see no wrong in Doug. Mikey was finding Wheatley more annoying every time the bot spoke.

Nate mentioned how Doug had helped him in Aperture, and Wheatley started going on about how livid GLaDOS probably was and how she would kill them if she saw them again. This seemed to make Amelia slightly uncomfortable. Mikey watched as she fidgeted in her seat. Then she suddenly turned to Arin and asked if she could talk to him in private. Mikey's stomach twisted as he watched her and Arin walk off to the side of the room where he couldn't hear. He wished he could've gotten closer to catch what she was saying to him, but he wouldn't be able to sneak over without getting caught.

He watched them carefully as they spoke. Amelia seemed uncertain as she appeared to be asking Arin something. Arin looked slightly troubled by what she was asking, and Mikey almost started grinding his teeth from the anxiety that was rising in him. What on earth could she be asking him that would give him that reaction?!

Their conversation was brief but it ended with Amelia giving him a hug that made Mikey yearn to be Arin at that moment. They returned to the table and Wheatley started to pester them about what they'd been talking about. Mikey silently agreed with Wheatley, wanting to know what had just happened. Arin wouldn't give away any hints, though.

"Oh, Arin!" Amelia suddenly said. "I also wanted to ask you if you want to hang out tonight."

"Sure. I didn't have anything planned tonight."

Mikey looked down at the table and ran a hand through his scruffy hair as Jon finally showed up to their table. _I shouldn't have come,_ he thought. _I should've stayed back at my apartment. I wish I wasn't here. I wish I was Arin so I could get hugged like that and have friends and—_ He tried his best to shake off this last thought. He didn't wish he could be Arin. Arin just put him in a bad mood all the time.

Mikey finished up what little food he'd gotten and hurried out of the cafeteria back to his apartment.


	12. Chap 12: Having Company

Mikey was anxious as he waited for Stevie to arrive. He'd asked him if he wanted to hang out and Stevie had seemed happy to have plans for the evening.

"There's something I need to tell you anyway," Stevie had said to him. "But let's wait to discuss it later."

So Mikey paced around the apartment as he tried to think of what Stevie might want to tell him. Did it have to do with the android body? Were there complications? Or did it have to do with Amelia somehow? Maybe Stevie had heard that she was dating Arin now. Mikey felt sick with the thought of this. Almost anybody else would be better than Arin.

"Mikey, sit down," Toby said as Mikey paced by him. "I swear that stress will be your killer one day."

"I'm fine," Mikey said. "I'm just impatient. What if it turns out the android thing isn't going to work out?"

"You think I'm not worried about that, too?" Toby asked. "I'd hate to be stuck in this computer for the rest of my existence, but if it turns out that I can't have an android body then that will be that. Also, why are you so sure this is _bad_ news?"

Mikey stopped pacing. "Huh," he murmured. "I, uh….I didn't think about that. I just kind of assume the worst when someone says they wanna talk about something."

"Maybe it turns out that my body will already come with lasers," Toby joked. "Then you'll have to promise me something _even better_ if I can turn you into an extrovert."

"We'll see," Mikey said, trying to hide his smile.

There was suddenly a knock at the door and Mikey hurried to answer it. He unlocked it and swung it open to reveal Stevie in his usual black attire. Stevie smiled at him.

"Hey," he said. "Thanks for inviting me."

"Yeah, uh, come on in," Mikey said, gesturing for Stevie to enter.

Stevie looked around as he stepped into Mikey's living room. "Not much on decorating, huh?" he commented. "Not that that's a bad thing. _My_ walls are cluttered with posters and whatnot. It's just a mess." He spotted the computer in the corner of the room. "Is this where Toby is?" he asked Mikey.

"Hey!" Toby called through the speakers. "I'm Toby! You must be Stevie."

"Yeah." Stevie had an amused grin on his face. "I'm guessing you can see me through the web camera, right? Very interesting. Are you excited about getting a body?"

"Pfft! Of course I am!" Toby said. "I've been ready for a while. It's about time I stretch my legs. When I get them, that is."

"Stevie, can I, uh, get you something to drink?" Mikey asked. He wasn't used to having guests at all. He wasn't sure if he was bothering Stevie by asking that or if he should've waited for Stevie to say that he was thirsty.

"Could I just have a glass of water?" Stevie asked. "Thanks."

"Yeah, I'll be right back." Mikey hurried into the kitchen and dropped a few ice cubes into a glass before filling the rest up with water. He returned quickly with the water and Stevie thanked him before taking a sip. "Uh, you said you had something to tell me, right?" Mikey asked awkwardly.

Stevie set his glass down on the coffee table and nodded. "Yeah, a couple of things, actually," he said. "First, that android body should be ready in the morning."

"Yes!" Toby interrupted. "Finally! I can't wait for the morning!"

"I'm going to go back to the labs later tonight so I can make sure all the kinks have been worked out," Stevie said. "But tomorrow morning—maybe around eight—the body should be ready for an AI to be downloaded into it."

"That's pretty good news," Mikey said, wishing he could feel relieved. "But you said you had other news?"

"Yeah," Stevie went on. "The other news is that I heard Amelia talking to Arin about something during lunch today. They were trying to be all secretive but I have very good hearing so I heard everything. She wants to go back into Aperture to retrieve Doug and Wheatley's lady friend."

Mikey raised his eyebrows slightly. "Oh," he said. "I, uh….Does she seem set on this? Wait, nevermind. I _know_ she is. If she's willing to talk to other people about it then nothing will stop her."

"If she does go back, are you going to go with her?" Stevie asked.

"Of course I will," Mikey said. "I would do anything for her and I need to make sure she gets home safely."

Stevie grinned knowingly.

"Don't give me that look," Mikey grumbled. "Okay, yeah, I have a crush on Amelia. Don't go around telling everyone, though."

"Mikey, you can trust me," Stevie said. "I've got plenty of secrets on everyone in here, but you'd never know it because I keep them."

"Wait, so do you know secrets about _me?"_ Mikey asked.

"Yeah, but I'll never tell you what I know."

"If you don't give away secrets then why did you let me know what Amelia had said to Arin?"

"I thought that you of all people should have a heads-up, you know?" Stevie said. "I think your thing with Amelia is adorable. I want you two to get together."

Mikey felt his face grow warm and he murmured something about it not being any of Stevie's business.

"I just think it's so romantic," Stevie continued. "I wish I had someone in here to feel that way toward."

"Do you think I should try to talk to her more?" Mikey suddenly asked. He knew this was a dumb question because he was already sure of what the answer would be.

"Yeah, absolutely," Stevie said. "I mean, you don't need to go confessing your feelings for her yet. You need to establish a strong friendship with her before you lay something so heavy on her."

"But…I mean….You don't think I should just let her go?" Mikey asked nervously. "You don't think that it's pathetic that I've had a crush on her for almost my entire life?"

"I already told you I think it's romantic," Stevie said. "If you still feel so strongly about her then I think you have something really special there. Just keep in mind to take things slowly at first. But not _too_ slow. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think so. Then what do you think my next move should be?"

"Well, when we show Toby to her, just try to talk more," Stevie suggested. "And make more eye-contact. She'll appreciate that."

Mikey thanked Stevie for the advice and offered to show Toby's code to him. Toby reluctantly allowed them to shut him off so that Stevie could review his code.

"Hey, uh, you said that you have secrets on everyone, right?" Mikey asked. "Do you have any about Amelia?"

Stevie grinned mischievously. "Of course I do," he said. "But there would be no fun in me revealing any to you. You'll just have to find out for yourself."

"Do….Do any of them have to do with me?" Mikey asked hesitantly.

Stevie made a motion of pretending to zip his mouth while still grinning.

As Stevie went through Toby's code, he asked Mikey to describe what the surface had been like when he'd gone to Aperture. Mikey described the smell of the flowers and the cool stream that ran through the forest. He recalled the dew in the grass and how chilly it had been in the spring air.

"That sounds so nice," Stevie said. "It would be great to go up and feel the sunshine again."

"Why don't you come with us when we go back to Aperture?" Mikey asked.

Stevie seemed a little embarrassed by this question. "I'm too scared to go in there," he said. "Wheatley made it sound like such a horrible place and I just….I can't imagine gathering up the nerve to go in with you guys. I'm not very fit, anyway. In a pinch, I'd just slow you guys down."

"Jon isn't all that fit either and I'm pretty sure he's going," Mikey pointed out.

"Still," Stevie insisted. "I have work I can do here. I can work on constructing a female android while Arin is away. I prefer to work alone so I'll get a lot more work done."

"If you say so," Mikey murmured.

"Just do me a favor while you're up there. Bring a camera and film whatever you can."


	13. Chap 13: I don't like you

93%. So close. So damn close.

Mikey's eyes were glued to the computer screen as he watched the progress bar slowly fill out. Toby was 93% downloaded into the android body. The body was fit and slightly muscular. The skin had a light, peachy tone to it. The hair was short and light brown with a slight curl. It looked so organic—save for the USB ports that were currently open in the wrist.

94%...95%...

"Mikey, sit back," Arin said. "Watching it won't make it go any faster."

Mikey was leaning forward against a lab table, his face quite close to the computer screen.

"I'm just so nervous," Mikey muttered without looking away. 96%. "I don't want anything to go wrong with this. I just want to make sure that everything is downloaded correctly."

"You have no reason to be nervous, Mikey," Stevie assured him. "I mean, you backed up Toby on a separate drive, right?"

Mikey froze with a horrible realization. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed. "I forgot! I-I forgot to back him up somewhere!"

"You forgot to back him up?!" Arin asked incredulously. "How could you forget something like that?! You better really hope that this'll work out, Mikey! Jesus Christ!"

"Okay! I get it, Arin!" Mikey shouted. "I'm a dumbass for not backing him up! I don't need you to rub it in so much!"

"I didn't call you a dumbass," Arin grumbled with annoyance. "Out loud."

"You're not a dumbass, Mikey," Stevie said. "You've been pretty stressed out lately. It's perfectly acceptable that you'd forget something."

"What the hell do you have to be stressed—"

"Arin," Stevie interrupted. "Please don't."

Mikey waited for a painful fifteen minutes before the progress bar finally reached 100%. Then the screen showed a new progress bar as the android slowly started booting up.

"Ugh! Come on!" Mikey growled at the computer. "This is taking forever!"

"Be patient, Mikey," Stevie said. "You know how long these kinds of things can take."

The android was eventually all booted up. The eyelids fluttered before opening a bit. They squinted at the bright fluorescent lights in the room.

"Toby?" Mikey asked cautiously. "Are you okay?"

The eyes slid toward Mikey and the corners of the mouth turned upwards. "Mikey," Toby mumbled. "It's great to see you. Weird to see you from this angle, though."

Mikey laughed a little with relief. "Can you move?" he asked.

"Um, let me see." Toby looked down as far as he could at his left hand that lay limp on the lab table. After a few seconds, the fingers twitched. It was a few more seconds before they twitched again. "I can barely move."

"You're not used to moving anything yet so it's fine," Arin assured him. "Take this as slowly as you need to."

"Can you sit up?" Mikey asked, ignoring Arin's advice. "How much can you move right now?"

Toby twitched his fingers a few more times. Then he weakly curled them into a fist. "I'm getting there," he told Mikey. "I just need to work on one body part at a time for now."

Toby spent almost an hour flexing the muscles that Arin instructed him to. They worked on clenching his fists, then raising each limb individually, then two at a time. He was eventually able to sit up and swayed a bit.

"Ugh, I think I feel dizzy," Toby murmured.

"You've never moved your gaze so much before," Stevie pointed out.

"Yeah, you've only ever had the view of the living room," Mikey chimed in. "This will take some getting used to, but I'll be here to help you every step of the way."

"I know you will," Toby said. He turned to look at Arin. "Oh, I haven't actually met you yet. You must be Arin."

"Yeah, that's me."

"I've heard about you from Mikey," Toby said. "He doesn't seem to like you that much."

"Uh, Toby, why would you say something like that?" Mikey asked, laughing nervously. "That's a rude thing to say after Arin just helped us get you into this body."

"Oh, thanks for doing this for me, guys," Toby said. "This is so weird but I just know I'm gonna love it. Now I can bother Mikey whenever I want."

"Bother him a little extra for me," Arin said, smirking slightly.

* * *

They all spent a little while helping Toby walk and showing him how to express different emotions on his face. Toby was already familiar with expressions, though, after living with Mikey and watching him. During these expression exercises, Mikey pointed out that Toby's pupils appeared to be tiny camera lenses.

"Of course," Arin said grumpily. "He's a machine. How else would he see?" Mikey did his best to ignore this condescending comment.

They helped Toby with balance and hand-eye coordination, as well. Toby was a quick learner so it didn't take him very long to get the hang of everything. As they went through of all this, Mikey couldn't help but notice how extremely tired Arin looked. There were circles under his eyes and he moved sluggishly.

At one point, Stevie took Toby out into the hall to walk to another lab and back. Mikey took this opportunity to eject his USB drive from the computer and put it in his pocket. He glanced over at Arin who was sitting at one of the lab tables. His head was resting on his folded arms, his face hidden from view.

"Um….Sorry about what Toby said," Mikey muttered awkwardly. "I mean, when he said that I don't like you. I don't know why he would—"

"It's fine," Arin said, sitting up. He looked at Mikey who couldn't help noticing that despite the shadows under them, Arin's eyes were still pretty wild. "I get it. I already knew that you didn't like me. To be honest, I don't really like you either."

Mikey was surprised by Arin's bluntness. "Oh."

"That isn't to say that I _hate_ you," Arin clarified. "I don't even necessarily _dis_ like you. I just don't like you. You're kind of annoying."

" _I'm_ annoying?" Mikey asked with irritation. "How am _I_ annoying?"

"Look, I don't want to get into an argument," Arin said. "I'm too exhausted to care enough right now."

"Why are _you_ so tired?" Mikey asked—almost accusingly. " _Stevie_ is the one who spent most of the night finishing up this project."

"I just had a really long night, okay?" Arin snapped at him. "I didn't have such a great night last night. And I….Despite you not liking me, can you keep a secret?"

Mikey nodded even though he wasn't sure yet if he would keep the secret.

"I was hanging out last night with Jon, Amelia, and Natalie," Arin started. "We, uh…..We snuck up to the surface and I might have brought a pregnant dog back with me."

Mikey cocked an eyebrow. "How did you sneak up to the surface?" he asked. "You couldn't have taken the bullet train."

"We didn't. There's an emergency elevator that leads up to the desert. I use it sometimes when I need to be alone for a while. Please don't tell anyone about it."

"You found a pregnant dog out in the desert?" Mikey asked. "How did she survive for so long? We're out in the middle of nowhere."

"I don't know. She just wandered over to me. I spent most of the night caring for her and making her comfortable in my apartment. I couldn't just leave her in the desert. You're not going to tell anyone about this, right?"

"No, I won't tell anyone," Mikey decided. "But you should make sure she doesn't have any diseases."

"I'm working on it," Arin claimed. "I'm working on finding someone who can help me with this. But anyway, that's why I'm so tired so don't go accusing me of not being productive enough with this project. Stevie and I did just about the same amount of work on this."

Mikey said no more as he waited for Toby and Stevie to get back.


	14. Chap 14: Revealing Toby

As Arin was off in the cafeteria inviting Amelia to come see the android, Stevie and Mikey plugged Toby into a computer to review how well his code transferred. Toby sat on a lab table and fidgeted around restlessly. He complained about how much he wanted to explore the rest of the underground compound.

"Just a few more minutes, Toby," Mikey said.

"Mikey, some of this is corrupt," Stevie pointed out just loud enough for him to hear. "Not everything went through. Have you noticed anything different about him personality-wise?"

"Not really," Mikey said. "Do you think we can fix it, though?"

"We can try but we might accidentally make things worse."

They both took a crack at trying to replace some of the corrupt code but they only succeeded in corrupting a little more of it. Toby didn't seem to act any differently, though.

"If it's not changing him enough for it to be noticeable then it's probably not that bad," Stevie pointed out optimistically. "Let's just leave it for now and we'll keep an eye on him."

"If you say so," Mikey said, but he wasn't entirely convinced that the corruption wasn't a problem. What had he done wrong?

* * *

Mikey ate lunch with Stevie and Toby in the computer lab. Stevie had grabbed a PBJ sandwich and an ice cream treat for Toby to start off with. They showed him how to chew his food and when to swallow it. Toby choked a little on the first bite but he was able to get the hang of it. He ended up eating the last half of the sandwich in one bite. Mikey sternly told him to be careful with how big of a bite he took and Toby halfheartedly listened.

When he got to the ice cream treat, Toby was a little startled at first by how cold it was on his tongue. When he got a taste of the vanilla ice cream, though, he quickly ate the rest, saving the cone to munch on for last.

"I think I like the ice cream more than the sandwich," he said. "Can I have more of that?"

"Maybe later," Stevie said. "We need to get you ready for your big reveal to our boss. Mikey, could you go into the other lab with Arin? He should be finished with getting Wheatley settled in. I just want to make sure everything is functional with the body."

"I can stay here with you," Mikey said. "Why do I need to leave the room?"

"Well, Amelia will be showing up in there soon," Stevie pointed out. "I thought that you might not want her to just be hanging out with Arin and Wheatley. Don't you want to give her some better company?" He gave Mikey a knowing wink.

"I guess you're right," Mikey admitted. "Don't take too long, though. I don't want her to get bored waiting."

"I don't think she'll get bored," Stevie said.

"Yeah, just be a good host to her," Toby said with a grin. "Make her feel at home. Greet her with a kiss."

"Okay, settle down, Toby," Mikey said. "I'll be waiting in the other lab."

Mikey went over to the other lab where Arin was telling Wheatley to be patient. Mikey sat at one of the lab tables as he wondered what Amelia would think of his work. Would she be more impressed with the android rather than the AI? Would Toby turn out to have a noticeable defect when he met Amelia?

"I'm gonna go grab Amelia really quick," Arin said as he headed for the door. "She should be finished with lunch by now." He left the room all too eagerly.

"So what does it look like?" Wheatley immediately asked Mikey. "Come on! Arin won't give me any hints!"

"Why do you think _I'm_ going to give you hints?" Mikey asked. "He just looks like a person, Wheatley. It's not like he's in a super sci-fi robot body."

"Who's 'he'?" Wheatley asked. "Who are you referring to?"

"The other AI," Mikey explained. "The one _I_ created. Toby."

"What's he like?" Wheatley asked. "He's not one of those boring, monotonous ones, is he? They're so dull!"

"No, he's just as expressive as you are," Mikey said. "I don't mean to toot my own horn but I think I designed him pretty well."

"Well, I'm interested in meeting him," Wheatley said. "Maybe I'll have someone to hold an intellectual conversation with. You know, one AI to another."

A few minutes went by where Wheatley was chattering on about how Nora had been a perfect conversation partner and how absolutely sweet she was. The more he went on about her, the more Mikey started to see himself in Wheatley. This bot was _obsessed_ with his female friend. She could do no wrong in his eye.

Arin finally came back with Amelia. Mikey straightened up in his chair more as she looked around the lab.

"So where's the android?" she asked.

"Yes, where _is_ this android?" Wheatley started up again. "I want to see what these bodies look like."

"Stevie is bringing him down here," Arin said. "He wanted to do some simple, last-minute tests with Toby really quick."

"Toby?" Amelia repeated. She sat down next to Mikey.

"That's the AI's name," Mikey said eagerly. "You're really going to like him. I've been working so hard on him for years. He's probably my best completed project. I had to start out with a basic format of an android AI from a Black Mesa computer. Some of the code keeps getting corrupted and he might be a little buggy, but he works pretty well for the most part." He realized that he was just rambling now so he forced himself to stop. Having her sitting right next to him was making him feel slightly hyper as his heart raced.

There was a knock on the door, and Stevie finally arrived with Toby who smiled brightly. There still didn't seem to be anything wrong with him despite the corrupt code. Maybe everything was alright with him after all.

"Hey, guys," Toby said. "What's up?"

"Where's the bloody android?!" Wheatley exclaimed. Mikey rolled his eyes at this. "I'm getting very impatient now! I want to see this new kind of body!"

"Wheatley, this _is_ the android," Mikey said, standing up and putting a proud hand on Toby's shoulder. "This is Toby. Toby, that sphere on the ceiling is Wheatley. He's another AI."

"Huh," Toby said. "I've never met another AI before. That's an interesting ball-like body you have. I wish I could have started out in something like that. I've been in a computer up until now." He suddenly turned toward Amelia and his grin turned mischievous. "Ooooh! Who's the cute girl?" Mikey blushed a little at this.

"This is Amelia," Arin said possessively. "And you can't just call her cute before you meet her." His blatant jealousy made Mikey forget his embarrassment briefly as it was replaced with irritation.

"It's a compliment!" Toby said, putting his hands up defensively. "I was just complimenting the nice lady. It's nice to meet you, Amelia." Toby took Amelia's hand in his and kissed hers lightly. Mikey's face blushed even more this time and he looked away.

"Well done, guys," Amelia said, seeming more amused than anything else. "Toby, if I just saw you walking in the halls, I never would have suspected that you were an android."

"There's only one real way to tell," Mikey said. "Look into his eyes carefully."

Amelia looked into Toby's eyes. "I see it," she said. "You have little lenses in your eyes."

"Thank you," Toby said, still grinning. "You have lovely eyes, too."

"Ugh!" Wheatley groaned. "I wish I had a body now! Why couldn't I have this one?!"

"Toby was here first, Wheatley," Mikey said. He was surprised by how well he was able to hide his annoyance.

"Well, if Wheatley really wants this body, he can have it," Toby offered. "I can wait for the next one."

"No, Wheatley will just have to wait," Stevie intervened. "I'm sorry, Wheatley. Your body is almost done if it makes you feel any better."

Wheatley whined a little more about wanting to do "human things". He asked Toby what it's like to eat food, and Toby described how creamy and sweet ice cream is.

"It's still junk food, though," Mikey reminded him. "You need to be eating vegetables and proteins."

Toby sort of waved this off and told Wheatley to try ice cream as soon as he could. Wheatley whined a little more and Amelia told him to be patient. She didn't seem nearly as annoyed with Wheatley as Mikey felt. Wheatley insisted that she show him everything about being human. He even denied Arin's offer to help, and Mikey couldn't blame him.

Toby suggested that they walk around the facility so he could see what it looked like. They all toured around the compound and showed Toby significant places to remember. Mikey stayed near the back of the group, far too nervous to walk too close to Amelia.


	15. Chap 15: A Stern Talking To

Mikey took Toby through the line in the cafeteria. Toby tried to focus more on the dessert section but Mikey convinced him to have some vegetables before dessert. Toby begrudgingly complied and grabbed a plate of steamed vegetables to put on his tray. They had their food marked down for inventory before Mikey led Toby to one of his usual lonely tables off to the side. Toby immediately started wolfing down the cake he'd put on his tray.

"Mmmm! This is delicious!" he exclaimed with a mouthful of cake. "What is this?"

"It's chocolate cake, but you really ought to be eating your vegetables first," Mikey said, trying to come off as stern. "It's easier for your body to break down more organic materials. Stuff like cake and ice cream have organic ingredients, but those ingredients have been mixed up too much. The vegetables are simple because they've only been steamed. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"So it's harder for my body to break down sweets because they have too many ingredients?" Toby asked. "That's dumb."

"That's how your body works!" Mikey closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to compose himself. Then he looked back at Toby who had a bit of a defiant expression. "No one's body is perfect. We all break down foods differently. Some people can digest fats and sugars a lot quicker than others. Some people can't have dairy products. It _is_ dumb and it's _not_ fair, but that's just how things work in life, okay? Now eat your vegetables first."

Toby pouted at Mikey for a few moments before he burst out laughing. "I couldn't keep that up!" he laughed. "I'm sorry! I get it, I should focus more on this healthier stuff. I just thought it was so funny to see you acting all parental."

Mikey could feel his face growing warm with embarrassment but he smiled. "You're grounded."

"So Amelia was pretty cute," Toby said, taking Mikey off-guard. "I can see why you have such a big crush on her."

"Can you try not to tease me too much about it in front of her?" Mikey asked in a low voice as if Amelia were around. "I don't care how much you tease me when it's just you and me, but I don't want her to know about it."

"Yeah, I guess," Toby said. "That's not much fun, though. We should hang out with her tomorrow."

"I don't know," Mikey said, looking away. "It would be awkward. I feel like I'm supposed to wait for her to ask if I want to hang out."

"That's dumb," Toby said. "If you wait forever on her, you won't get anywhere."

Mikey shrugged.

"All you need is a good wingman," Toby went on. "I can break any tension that might come up."

"I don't need a wingman," Mikey insisted. "But I appreciate the offer."

"Hey, guys," Stevie said as he approached their table with a tray of food. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Go ahead," Toby said, gesturing to the seat next to him.

Stevie sat down and seemed quite pleased to have company. Mikey just realized that he usually didn't see him eating in the cafeteria. Did he eat alone in his apartment?

"So is everything going down easily with that body?" Stevie asked Toby.

"Yeah, I'm having a great time trying everything out," Toby said. "Well, mostly the desserts. And yeah, before you get on my case, Mikey already told me all about needing to eat better."

"Good," Stevie said, trying to repress a chuckle. "That means that Mikey is being a good parent. He's basically your dad, you know."

"I'd rather think of myself as just a friend to him," Mikey mumbled. "It's weird to think of him as a son or whatever."

"Yeah, I agree," Toby said. "We're just BFFs, right?"

"Yep," Mikey said, smiling.

"I'm glad to see everything working out so far," Stevie said. "Let's see if we can do it a second time with Wheatley. It shouldn't be too hard. We'll just have to check through his files to make sure they'll all fit in the hard drive for the body."

"It's a pretty big hard drive," Mikey pointed out. "We shouldn't have any problems."

"It'll be kinda cool to have another android buddy," Toby said. "We'll be like brothers."

"Yeah, but Wheatley will be like an annoying younger brother," Mikey said with slight irritation.

" _Any_ brother is fine with me," Toby insisted optimistically. "I don't think he's that bad. He's just impatient to get into an android body. I can't blame him either. This _is_ pretty awesome."

Mikey shrugged. He didn't agree with this but he didn't want to ruin Toby's anticipation for a new friend.


	16. Chap 16: Overly Paranoid

The next day, Mikey took Toby around the facility and showed him where everything was. He pointed out where the pool and gymnasium were, where they kept their animals for livestock, where they grew their food using UV lights, and where the nursery was.

"Do you think Aperture had an underground living compound like this?" Toby asked.

"I've never really thought about it," Mikey said. "I guess it's possible but we would've known about it by now. We spent years trying to make contact with Aperture but we never got a response."

"Are you ready to go back to Aperture?" Toby asked. "I mean, it sounded dangerous and you _did_ get separated from Amelia in there."

"Believe me, I won't let that happen again," Mikey vowed. "I'll tear down any door that stands between me and her."

"How are _you_ going to tear down a door?" Toby asked, laughing a little.

"I don't know. I'd find a way."

"Maybe I could go with."

Mikey looked Toby straight in the eye and saw that he was serious about this. "No, you just got into your android body," he said. "What if something happens to you in there?"

"I'm replaceable," Toby said. "Just back me up onto a computer and I'll be fine—even if this body is destroyed."

"I don't care if there would be a copy of you," Mikey argued. "I'd be devastated if _any_ copy of you was destroyed. Even if only one died out of a hundred, I'd still be losing a part of you."

Toby smiled and ruffled up Mikey's hair playfully. "I appreciate it," he said. "But I'm just as worried about you. I'm stronger than any of you are. I can plug into any computers that might need hacking or whatever. I can be a lot of use to you in there. Let me help. Please."

Mikey had to admit that Toby had a point. An android would be pretty useful in Aperture. And he knew that Toby would be worried sick until he got back. "Okay, fine," he said. "You can come with, but you need to stay with me at all times so I know you're safe. If the group needs to split up for whatever reason, you need to come with me."

"Deal!" Toby said excitedly. "This is gonna be so cool! I really wanna see what the inside of Aperture looks like. Are there gonna be AIs in there like Wheatley?"

"Yeah, we're going in to find a mutual friend of Wheatley and Doug," Mikey said. "She's an AI in a spherical construct like Wheatley."

"You know, I just realized that I still haven't met this fabled Doug," Toby said. "When do I get to meet him? What's he like?"

"He's nice enough, I guess," Mikey said. "I haven't really spoken to him, but he seems a like good guy. I just hope that he isn't making Amelia uncomfortable by staying in her apartment. If he wants a new roommate, I'd volunteer our apartment." He paused before adding, "I'm also a little nervous about his schizophrenia. I don't want him to end up hurting her because of some delusion he's having where he thinks she's the Devil or something."

"Is that how schizophrenia works?" Toby asked. "Because I get the feeling that's not how it works."

Mikey shrugged. "I'm probably just being overly paranoid."

"Hey, I get it," Toby assured him. "You're protective of Amelia. That's understandable."

"Do I even have the right to be if we're technically no longer friends?"

 _"I_ think so. You don't necessarily need to be friends to feel protective of someone."

Mikey shrugged again but said nothing. He couldn't help feeling pathetic about the whole situation with Amelia.


	17. Chap 17: The Split-Up

After dinner that night, Toby and Mikey sat around in their living room, and just chatted about different things while Mikey worked on a small project on his computer. It was nice to be able to do other things on the computer without worrying about bothering Toby. They talked a little about what Aperture would be like, and how Mikey could prevent being separated from Amelia again.

"Hey, you say that you've been friends with her since you were both kids," Toby suddenly mentioned. "What was your friendship like? What did you guys do?"

"We mostly just played pretend games," Mikey said. "We'd pretend we were spies and climb trees to secretly watch people." He smiled a little. "Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure our moms were just pretending that they didn't know we were spying on them. But yeah, I would mainly follow Amelia around like a puppy and play whatever she wanted to. I think my emotional development started just a little too early because I had a crush on her even then when other boys were grossed out by girls."

"That sounds adorable!" Toby laughed. "I bet you were a really cute spy duo, huh?"

Mikey blushed but his smile widened. "Actually, I remember a few times that we would pretend to be a….a married spy couple."

"Awwwww!" Toby gushed. "That's the cutest thing I've ever heard! I wish I could've seen it! Do you have any pictures of the two of you playing when you were kids?"

"Uh, probably somewhere," Mikey said. "I'd have to go through all of my boxes."

"If you were such good friends, why don't you guys talk anymore?" Toby asked.

The smile faded from Mikey's face. "It's kind of a sad story," he said quietly.

* * *

Mikey's nine-year-old mind was racing as his mother took him to the nursery. She'd told him that if Amelia was okay she'd be there with all of the other kids. The gates of their community couldn't keep the Combine out forever. They had broken in and the citizens were currently swarming to the underground compound. When Mikey had overheard his mother talking on her cell phone about Amelia's house being raided, his heart had sunk to the pit of his stomach, and he knew it would stay there until he saw that Amelia was safe and sound.

When they got to the nursery, Mikey immediately spotted Amelia in the crowd. She was looking around in fear among all of the other frightened children, but she was the only one Mikey cared about.

"Amelia!" he called out as he pushed through the crowd of other kids. She turned to look at him but her eyes widened as she looked over his shoulder at his mom. He didn't care about that, though, as he crashed into her and hugged her tightly. "I was so scared! I heard that the Combine attacked your house and I was scared that you were still inside!"

"Mikey, where's my mom?!" Amelia cried. "Where are all the parents?!"

"They're dead!" said a young teenager. He looked angry at her for being innocently ignorant. "We're all orphans! Don't you get it?! The Combine killed our parents!"

"What?! No!" Amelia cried. "My mom is too strong!"

"Where did your mom go then, _princess?"_ the boy demanded. The last word was soaked with venomous hatred "Huh? What makes _your_ mom so much better than _mine?"_

"I….I…."

"Back off!" Mikey barked as he stood between Amelia and the bigger kid. He couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. "Leave her alone! She's just as upset as you are! You can't bully her at a time like this!" Then he turned to Amelia, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Don't listen to him. I'm sure your mom is okay. Just stay positive."

"But w-what if she _is_ d-dead?" Amelia sniffled. Her tears were breaking his heart more and more.

"She's not," Mikey insisted. He wasn't so convinced of this himself, though. "But if anything _did_ ever happen to her….I…I could take care of you. I'm your loyal android." He forced a smile, hoping that he could get her to smile, too.

"Mikey, this isn't a game!" Amelia yelled at him. Her anger cut through him like a serrated blade. "This is real! My mom could be in trouble! What if the Combine _did_ get her?! Huh?! If you're an android, why don't you go save her?!"

Mikey could feel his heart breaking almost completely as she glared at him. "I….I was just trying to make you feel better," he whimpered.

"Just go away!" Amelia yelled. "You still have a mom! Go to your mom!"

As she turned and ran away from him, his eyes watered as a sob escaped from his throat. He ran back to his mother and hugged her as he started to sob uncontrollably.

"Mikey, what's wrong?!" his mother asked anxiously. "What happened?!"

"A-AMELIA HATES ME!" he cried. His breaths caught in his throat and he felt like he was losing the ability to breathe at all. He choked on his sobs as he began to hyperventilate, and his mother panicked when she heard her son's labored breaths.


	18. Chap 18: Spying

Once Toby had gone to bed in the guest room, Mikey went to his own room and picked up the framed photo that was sitting on top of his dresser. The photo showed two little kids with their arms around each other. _Her hair was weirdly lighter back then,_ he mused. Instead of having those cheesy smiles that kids give their parents for pictures, they were smiling genuinely. Mikey smiled now as he vaguely remembered Amelia saying something funny right before his mother took the picture. He couldn't remember exactly what she had said but he remembered how hard he had laughed.

He put the photo back and changed into a pair of sweatpants before collapsing on the bed. He stared up at the ceiling as he reminisced about all the times he had played with Amelia. He thought about the first time he'd met her and what they had played.

* * *

Five-year-old Mikey pouted as his mother walked him to the nearby park. Normally, he would've been excited to play on the playground, but his mother had mentioned that she wanted him to play with the daughter of one of her friends from work. Mikey didn't want to play with a girl. She'd probably want to play something stupid that had to do with princesses and whatever.

When they got to the park, his mother walked him over to a woman who was sitting on a bench. There was no girl around with her.

"Hi, Leah," his mother greeted the other woman. "Where's Amelia?"

"She's on the swings right now," Leah said. She saw Mikey and smiled. "Hey there, kiddo. You must be Mikey. It's very nice to meet you." She stuck out a hand and Mikey awkwardly shook it before shoving his hands into his pockets shyly. "I think you'll like Amelia. She loves playing games." Leah turned towards the swing set. "Amelia! Come meet Mikey! He's the playdate that I told you about!"

Mikey looked over at the swing set and froze when he saw the girl putting her feet down to skid to a stop on the swing. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with Pikachu on it. Her brown hair was long and curled halfway down her back. It seemed to have a very slight golden tint in the sun. When she got to them, he saw how sweet her dark brown eyes were, and he looked away timidly.

"Mikey, this is my daughter Amelia," Leah said. "Amelia, this is Mikey. Why don't you two go play together while us grown-ups talk about work?"

"Okay," Amelia said. "Come on, Mikey. Let's play on the swings."

"Uh, okay," Mikey said nervously.

She led him over to the swings and challenged him to swing higher than she could. "Come on, it'll be fun. If you win, I'll let you have the Oreos that my mom put in my lunch."

He accepted her challenge and hopped on a swing next to her. They started to pump their legs, each time getting higher and higher. Mikey noticed that he was starting to swing higher than she was and he decided to ease up on it. He didn't want to take her Oreos. He just wanted to make her happy.

"I'm swinging _way_ higher!" Amelia declared triumphantly. "I win!"

They slowed to a stop and Amelia went over to grab her lunch bag from her mother. All that was left inside was a small package of Oreos. Despite having won, she insisted on splitting up the cookies. They took the cookies up onto the playground and ate them in one of the large tubes.

"So what do you like to play?" Amelia asked as she munched on her cookies.

Mikey shrugged a little. "I like Pokémon," he said quietly.

"I like Pokémon, too!" Amelia said excitedly. "Which one is your favorite?"

"I like Cubone," Mikey said, smiling at the mutual interest. "He looks pretty cool."

"Yeah, he's got that skull on his head," Amelia agreed. "He looks tough. I like Kangaskhan because she's a big mom that's also like a dinosaur-kangaroo."

Their mothers started planning more playdates for them when they saw how well the kids got along. Amelia would come up with new games to play, and sometimes they would bring their Pokémon cards to compare each other's collections. One day, Amelia asked if Mikey had ever played "spy" before. Mikey shook his head.

"How do you play?" he asked.

"Here, follow me." She led him over to a pine tree and started climbing up. When she noticed his hesitation, she reached down to help him up.

"I don't know if I can climb up there," Mikey mumbled. "I might fall."

"You won't fall," Amelia insisted. "I promise. Take my hand and I'll help you up."

He reluctantly reached up and took her hand in his. Her hand was so warm and soft. He flinched nervously but she didn't seem to notice as she pulled him up to the branch she was on.

"We don't need to climb very far," Amelia assured him. "We just need to climb enough to see everyone."

"Why?" Mikey asked.

"Hold on, I'll tell you in a minute."

They climbed up fifteen feet and both sat on a thick branch so they could look out at the rest of the park. "Isn't this cool?" Amelia asked. "We can spy on everyone in the park!"

"Why would we want to do that?" Mikey asked with confusion.

"Because they don't know we can see them!" Amelia said, her excitement not diminishing a bit. "Isn't that cool? We're like spies up here!"

They watched people walk through the park for a while. Sometimes they would comment on how cute a dog was or how cool the teenagers looked. Mikey couldn't care less about whatever they talked about so long as he got to sit with her like this.

As time went on, they continued to climb the tree and spy on everyone from their special spot. They started adding new things to it like pretending that they were secret agents looking for the cutest dogs or aliens that were disguised as old people.

One day, though, when they were both seven, an older kid came to mock them and call them babies for playing pretend games. Amelia stayed in character and told the kid that she was going to report him to the FBI. The older kid didn't like her threats, and he started climbing the tree after them. Amelia tried to scramble higher up the tree, afraid of the big kid catching her. Mikey, though, climbed down to meet the kid with a kick to the shoulder. The big kid grabbed for a branch to stop himself from falling, but he instead ended up grabbing Mikey's leg. Mikey was pulled down and fell on top of the big kid. He put out his arms to stop his fall, but his wrist bent under him. There was a grotesque cracking sound as pain shot through his arm and he screamed.

The big kid quickly ran away before he could get into trouble as Mikey's mom came running to her injured son. Amelia quickly climbed down the tree and wrapped her arms around Mikey's neck as his mom called 911. She thanked him repeatedly for saving her before the ambulance arrived. Despite the incredible pain, Mikey was ecstatic about how much Amelia was hugging him.

A couple of days later, Leah brought Amelia to visit Mikey in the hospital while he recovered from a broken wrist and a sprain in his ankle. While their moms went to talk in the hallway, Amelia made sure that they were gone before leaning over to kiss Mikey on the cheek.

"Thank you for being my hero," she said for the hundredth time. She had such a big smile on her face, though, that Mikey felt butterflies in his stomach.

"I couldn't let him hurt you," Mikey said shyly. "We're best friends."

"Yeah!" Amelia said happily. "You're like a robot bodyguard! That was so cool how you kicked that big kid! You're so cool!"

"It wasn't _that_ cool," Mikey said modestly. "Really, I just didn't want him to get you."

Amelia kissed him again but this time it was just on the corner of his mouth. He could feel the moisture of her lips on his.

* * *

Mikey suddenly sat up in his bed. Did that last part really happen? He would usually fabricate romantic scenes like this in his head when he was a kid, but had this part actually happened?

 _If it did happen, how could I possibly have forgotten it?_ he wondered. As he thought of this possibly false memory, he was hit with a stab to the chest as he suddenly thought about Amelia's anger just a couple of years later. How could things have gone so wrong between them?

 _Did I repress that memory of the hospital just so I wouldn't feel even worse about the rejection?_ he wondered frantically. _If that's the case….._ A smile started to spread across his face. _Then that means that I did share a first kiss with her. I'm pretty sure it counts._

Hope started to fill him as he fell asleep with the thought of kissing her again. It would be so romantic to end up with her after such a long time of waiting for her.


	19. Chap 19: Charming

Toby got dressed, brushed his teeth, and got ready to go hang out with Amelia. He had asked Mikey if he wanted to go with, but Mikey declined, obviously too nervous to be around Amelia. Toby had it in his head that maybe if he flirted with Amelia, he could get her to flirt back and make Mikey jealous. Then he would reject her, break her heart, and Mikey would be able to swoop in to make her feel better. It was an absolutely terrible idea, but to Toby, it was genius.

He called out to Mikey that he was leaving before he headed out the door. He walked for a little way in silence, hands in his pocket and whistling a vague tune that he had heard the other day when passing someone's apartment.

"Hey, Toby," Stevie said as he walked up next to the android. "How's everything working this morning?"

"Pretty smoothly," Toby replied. "I had a nice, healthy breakfast of spinach and scrambled eggs with Mikey, and it seems to be digesting correctly."

"That's good," Stevie said. He looked around briefly and asked, "Where's Mikey?"

"He didn't wanna come with," Toby said. "I'm going to hang out with Amelia and he was too nervous to join me. See, I have this plan to win Amelia over, then reject her so Mikey can comfort her and win her over himself."

Stevie gave him a doubtful look. "I don't think that's a very good idea," Stevie said. "But go for it if you're really that confident."

"You don't think I can charm the pants off of Amelia?" Toby asked. "I mean, not _literally_. You know what I mean."

"See, that's the thing," Stevie said. He stopped Toby and pulled him off to the side in the hall. "I'm pretty sure that she's already into someone else."

"You don't think it's Arin, do you?" Toby asked.

"No, it's Doug," Stevie said.

"How do you know?"

"I have my sources. I just thought that either you or Mikey should know. Mikey's a really nice kid and I don't want to see his heart get broken, but he needs to know that Amelia might be wanting someone else."

Toby was quiet for a moment before saying, "Well, this sucks."

"Yeah, it does," Stevie agreed. "But it's Amelia's decision and we have to respect it."

"I'm still gonna try my plan," Toby said. "Who knows? I might be able to charm her more than Doug does."

"Just don't…Make sure you break it to Mikey easily," Stevie said, frowning slightly. "It'll be better if he hears it from you rather than me or even Amelia."

"That's true. Well, thanks for telling me," Toby said. "I better get to the cafeteria now before Amelia finishes her breakfast and leaves."

"Okay, I'll see you around," Stevie said before turning around to head back for his apartment.

Toby entered the cafeteria and scanned the tables before finding Amelia sitting alone. He casually went over and sat down across from her. She seemed to be in a daze as she looked up from her breakfast at him. The shadows under her eyes suggested that she hadn't slept well the previous night, and her eyes themselves were a bit misty.

"Hi, Toby," she said. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm okay," Toby said, giving her a warm grin. "You kind of look upset, though. Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah, I guess," she said. "My friend had a bit of a…Well, he has schizophrenia."

"Do you mean Doug?" Toby asked. "He's the guy living with you, right?"

"Um, yeah."

"Was his schizophrenia acting up?"

Toby felt a little proud as he succeeded in getting a chuckle out of her. "I guess that's one way to put it," she said. She looked down at the table in front of him and seemed to realize that he didn't have any food with him. "Did you come in here just to talk to me?"

"Yeah," he said. "I've taken a liking to you. I don't know if it's just because you're the first female I ever saw, but for whatever reason, I think I like you the most. From now on, consider me your knight in shining armor. If you ever need someone to talk to, come to me."

Amelia smiled. "Thanks, Toby. That's very considerate."

"Oh, it's my pleasure." He took her hand and kissed it lightly. He briefly wondered if maybe he was laying on the charm too thick, but he quickly dismissed this idea. How could someone be _too_ charming? "Hey, I happen to be wearing my swimming trunks today. Do you want to go swimming?"

"Right now?"

"Why not? It might make you feel better."

Amelia finished up her breakfast quickly and Toby realized that she had only grabbed an orange for breakfast. _That can't be very healthy,_ Toby thought. _To eat so little._

They both went to Amelia's apartment so she could grab her swimsuit. She was particularly quiet as she went down her hallway to her room. Toby took this time to look around her living room and take in her possessions.

"This is a nice apartment," Toby said. "I especially enjoy the paint job in the living room. Turquoise is one of my favorite colors so far."

"Thanks," Amelia said quietly. "Let's get going."

* * *

Toby couldn't help but watch all of the nearly naked people in the pool as he waited for Amelia to finish changing into her swimsuit. These humans all looked so different but also so similar. It was interesting to identify the subtle differences in them. That guy was chubbier, this woman had deeper wrinkles in her face, that young woman had a softer-looking chest. He didn't feel sexually aroused by any of these young women with soft-looking chests, but he did feel the urge to hug them so he could feel just how soft they were.

Amelia finally came out with a black bra-like top and black swimming skirt. Toby remarked in his head that she looked like she would be comfortable hug, but he decided to keep this to himself.

"Nice swimsuit," he said to her.

"Same to you. Can you even go into water? Won't it break you or something?"

"I don't know," he said, just now considering this possibility. "Let's find out." He suddenly ran toward the deeper end of the pool, and performed what he knew to be called a "cannonball" into the water. He lightly touched the bottom of the pool and pushed himself up with his legs. However, he had difficulty keeping above the water's surface and this is when the fear set in. He thrashed his arms and legs around, trying his best to keep his head above the water.

"Are you okay, Toby?" Amelia asked timidly.

"I can't swim!" he managed to cry out.

A man wearing red swimming trunks jumped into the water and pulled Toby out who started coughing up water that splattered to the tiled floor.

"Try to stay in the shallow end if you can't swim," the man said. "As long as your feet can touch the floor with your head above the water, you should be okay."

"Thanks, man," Toby said weakly between coughs. "You're a life saver."

"It's just my job, kid."

Toby headed over to the shallow end of the pool and lowered himself into the water. He crouched down until his shoulders were submerged in the water so his mechanical body could get used to the temperature change. Amelia got into the pool and joined him in crouching in the water. She seemed to be staring at his body. _She probably can't believe how perfectly designed I am,_ Toby thought sarcastically.

"I know you're staring," he said, grinning and cocking an eyebrow mischievously. "It's okay, though. I know you're into someone else."

"H-How would you know if I'm into _anyone?"_ Amelia asked as she started to blush.

"Stevie told me."

"How would _he_ know?"

"Oh, Stevie knows everything about everyone," Toby said. "I don't know how. He just does."

"Amelia!"

They both turned to see a friendly-looking burly man with blonde hair approaching them. He was wearing swimming trunks that had a cartoon cat on them. The man sat at the edge of the pool and let his legs hang down into the water.

"What a pleasant surprise!" he said, seeming to know Amelia. "Hey, didn't you wanna tell me about your talk with Grant?"

"Oh. Right," Amelia said. "Well, he denied my request so I'm just going to organize this myself."

"Organize what?" Toby asked, feigning ignorance.

"I want to go back into Aperture to retrieve Wheatley's friend."

"Count _me_ in," Toby said. "Sounds like a lot of fun."

"So I went and saw Missy in the early hours," the man said in a quieter voice. Toby had no idea who this "Missy" was but he wasn't interested enough to ask. "She's coming along alright but she needs more vitamins. She's been mildly starving. Arin is giving her a nice, healthy diet, though."

"Well, that's good," Amelia said.

"I also asked him if he wanted to make an android body for Nora," the man continued. "He said his team could get started on it today."

"That's even better," Amelia said, smiling. "You're really on your game today."

The man shrugged modestly. "I do my best. Anyway, when do we wanna go back into Aperture?"

"As soon as possible," Amelia said. "Tomorrow night, we will have a meeting. The next day we will gather supplies. Then on Friday, we will leave."

"So in three days?" Toby asked. "Sounds good to me."

"Keep it a secret from Wheatley and Doug, though," Amelia warned. "I want to succeed at giving them a surprise that they will enjoy."

"Oh, I'm Nate," the man suddenly said, reaching out to shake Toby's hand. "I don't think we've met."

"I'm Toby," he said, shaking hands with Nate. "I'm an android."

"Oh, so _you're_ the android that I've heard about," Nate said, smiling. "I never would've guessed."

"He's got lenses in his eyes," Amelia pointed out. "That's the only way you can tell."

"Well, I'm very impressed with the work they did on you," Nate told Toby. "That gives me high hopes for Wheatley and Nora's bodies."


	20. Chap 20: Unexpected Invitation

**AN: Oops. This is a day late. My bad.**

Mikey hurried to the cafeteria, hoping to stop Toby in time. He felt stupid for not having realized it sooner. With the way that Toby had flirted with Amelia when they first met, Mikey should've known better than to let Toby go hang out with her alone. Toby was most likely planning on bothering Amelia, and might even let slip that Mikey had been too nervous to go with him.

He entered the cafeteria and scanned the room quickly, but he couldn't see either of them. Where could they have gone?

"Hey, Mikey!"

He flinched with surprise at hearing his own name, and turned around to see Arin beckoning him toward his table. Mikey was taken aback. Why would Arin want him to sit at his table with his friends? He approached cautiously, but he didn't make a move to sit down or even say anything.

"Sit down," Arin said. "None of us bite."

"Except maybe me," Jon said. "I haven't bitten anyone since I was a kid but who knows if that habit is still in me."

Mikey didn't respond to the joke as he sat at the end of their table near Natalie. At least she was sort of a longer-time friend of Amelia.

"I wanted to let you know that after I'm done here, Stevie and I were planning on transferring Wheatley into the android," Arin said. "I thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to be there for it."

"Uh, sure," Mikey said quietly. "I'd be happy to join but…why would you invite me to it if you don't like me? It's not the same as it was with Toby since I didn't work on Wheatley's code or anything.

"Hold on, why do you think Arin doesn't like you?" Jon asked defensively. "I mean, you guys aren't really _friends_ but I don't think he _dislikes_ you."

"Jon, it's fine," Arin said. "He and I have talked about this. We get that we don't like each other." He turned back to look at Mikey. "Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I'm a dick. I know that you'd want to be there for it since you're so into AI and stuff. I thought that it would be proper of me to invite you."

"Oh, well, uh….Thanks," Mikey said awkwardly.

"But you can't tell Amelia about it," Arin said. "I don't know if you guys really talk much, but I want to keep it a secret that Wheatley's body will be ready today. I think she deserves a pleasant, little surprise herself, don't you?"

Mikey couldn't help but feel a bit pissed off by Arin's words. Not only was Arin acting so territorial toward Amelia but now it was like he was shoving it in Mikey's face that they didn't really talk to each other anymore. He didn't think that Arin knew about Mikey's past with Amelia but it still stung to hear that come out of Arin's mouth.

"Yeah, I won't tell her," Mikey grumbled in agreement. "I hope she'll be happy about it."


	21. Chap 21: Get Wheatley Walking

Mikey wasn't nearly as impatient during Wheatley's download as he had been with Toby's. He got to chat with Toby this time so he wasn't bored during the painfully long download time. They talked about what the second trip to Aperture would be like and what computer software they might be able to find in the computers there. Toby barely understood any of Mikey's tech talk, but he continued to nod and respond with "Yeah" and "That would be cool".

When the download was finally done, they just had to wait for Wheatley to boot up. As they waited for this, Mikey took the time to examine the new android body. It was pale and lanky with fiery orange hair. The features of the face were straight and angular. Mikey had to admit that he was grateful that Toby had gotten the one he had. This body wouldn't have fit Toby's personality at all.

Finally, Wheatley was all booted up and his eyelids slowly opened. "I feel exhausted," he mumbled as he blinked against the bright lights overhead. "I feel like I just awoke from a very long nap." He tried to sit up but found that he couldn't. "Why can't I move?" he asked, waking up more as he started to panic.

"It'll take a little while for you to be able to move around freely," Stevie explained calmly. "Just focus on moving one limb at a time, okay?"

"But I want to start walking," Wheatley whined.

"Hey, Wheatley," Toby said, coming into view with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, man. You'll get to move soon. It's just that it's your first time moving in this body. Just give it some time. Maybe an hour."

"An hour?" Wheatley complained. "That's not fair! I want to move _now!_ I've had to wait for so long already!"

"An hour is nothing," Toby said. "It'll fly by so fast that you won't even notice. Just do what Arin and Stevie say, and you'll be running around with me in no time."

Wheatley gave in and worked on moving his fingers first. He tried to progress as quickly as possible, and Arin scolded him for not taking this seriously. He told Wheatley that they had to make sure the carbon nanofibrous muscles were all working correctly. "Imagine suddenly realizing that you can't move your pinky at all," he said. "We'd have to deactivate you long enough to open up the body's hand to take a look."

Wheatley finally acquiesced to their requests and he tried his best to take it slowly. Mikey was a little annoyed that Wheatley couldn't just wait an hour to make sure that his body was working. It would probably have been a pain for Stevie—and he supposed Arin, as well—to have to work on the inside of the android because Wheatley strained a mechanical muscle before testing it first.

With Wheatley's impatience impeding on progress, it took them over an hour to get him up on his feet. He walked around the room, staring down at his own feet with excitement. He spun around, almost falling over from dizziness. He couldn't remember a time that he had been this excited about something. That is, until the memory of being transferred into the mainframe floated into his head. The high he got from having so much control over that prison made him feel sick in hindsight. He tried to hide the pain he felt as he remembered how arrogant he had become and how much he had abused his only friend at the time.

"Wheatley?"

He turned to look at Toby who seemed slightly concerned. "What?" he asked almost defensively.

"You good?" Toby asked, forcing a slight smile.

"O-Of course I'm 'good'," Wheatley said, scoffing a little. "Why _wouldn't_ I be when I've got a proper body now?"

"I'm just making sure, buddy," Toby said. Wheatley smiled when Toby called him his buddy. Then he added in a quieter voice, "Hey, when you have dinner later, be sure to check out the dessert table. Don't let these guys keep you from deciding your first meal."

"I _am_ eager to try eating for the first time," Wheatley said. "Maybe I can get dinner with Amelia."

"Let's do a few simple tests before that to make sure you're functioning correctly," Arin said. Wheatley felt his heart sink a little at the mention of "tests".


	22. Chap 22: Jealousy

Mikey and Toby stuck around the labs near dinnertime to watch Arin and Stevie start on a new bot. They had what looked like the skeleton of an android laid out on one of the tables. It looked really creepy to Mikey and he almost couldn't believe that this would become a girl's body eventually.

"Is that what _I_ looked like?" Toby asked as he stared at the endoskeleton.

"It's what you look like on the _inside_ ," Arin said.

"That's so weird," Toby said. "But also really cool. I can't wait for this to become a new android buddy."

"It'll take some time to finish the body," Stevie pointed out.

"Yeah, and then there's the possibility that we can't even find Nora in Aperture," Arin added. "So this could remain a blank android until a different feminine AI comes along."

"I'm sure we'll find her," Toby said. "We'll just need to be careful and vigilant, right? I can be those things."

Arin only grunted quietly in response.

"Wheatley's gonna be a lot of fun," Toby rambled. "Once he's used to his body more, maybe we can all go up to the surface. Wouldn't that be cool? He seems pretty friendly to me, and I bet he'll be even more fun once Nora is here."

"Well, even if we get Nora back here, it could still take some time to finish the body," Arin said. There was an undertone of annoyance that he was barely trying to hide. "We need to scale things down slightly since she'll be a little smaller so don't get all excited yet."

Toby continued on about how much fun it would be for him to have two other AIs that he could relate to, and Arin seemed to be getting increasingly agitated with Toby's optimism. As much as Mikey didn't like Arin, he was curious to know what was bothering him. He didn't say anything for a long time, though.

Eventually, Toby said that he wanted to get dinner and asked Mikey if he was going with.

"No, I'm not that hungry," Mikey said. "I'll just meet you back at the apartment in a little bit."

"Whatever you say," Toby said before leaving.

"Finally," Arin said under his breath once the door was shut.

"I get the feeling you don't like Toby," Mikey said, finding himself using a defensive tone.

"I just think he's a little annoying," Arin muttered.

"Like _me_ , right?" Mikey asked, crossing his arms.

"If you wanna go there then yeah, like _you_ ," Arin said.

"What's your problem with me?!" Mikey demanded.

"I already said I think you're an annoying little shit!"

"Stop it," Stevie said in a very stern tone. The other two turned to see an almost angry expression on his face. It was a little scary to see such an expression on a usually calm face. "You're both being really immature and this isn't helping us get this body done any faster."

"Mikey's the one who wanted to pick a fight!" Arin claimed. "I can't help it if I snap back! I've been really frustrated lately!"

"What, because of that dog that you snuck in?" Mikey scoffed. He almost cowered away when he saw the hatred in Arin's eyes as he approached him. For a second, Mikey thought that Arin was about to take a swing at him.

"You little—"

"Arin, I already knew about the dog," Stevie admitted.

Arin turned to look at Stevie with surprise and agitation. "What? How do _you_ know? Who told you? Was it this little shit?"

"No, I just overheard someone talking about it," Stevie said. "I'm pretty sure it's still a well-kept secret."

"Mikey, I swear if it turns out you've been—"

"Okay, that's enough," Stevie said. "We need to take a break. Arin, go get dinner. I need to talk to Mikey alone."

"What? _I_ didn't do anything wrong!" Mikey insisted.

"I didn't say that. I just want to talk. Arin?" Stevie nodded slightly toward the door. Arin obliged and stormed out of the lab. Stevie turned back to Mikey. "You really shouldn't be getting into such heated arguments with Arin. I mean, if you can even call _that_ an argument. That was more like trash-talking."

"I don't like the way he's been acting toward Toby," Mikey grumbled. "I had to say something."

"No, you didn't," Stevie said. "Unless Arin starts personally offending Toby or if Toby tells you that he doesn't like how Arin is treating him, then you need to just let it go."

"I just don't know why he doesn't like me," Mikey said, leaning against a table and glaring down at the floor. "I've never done anything to deserve treatment like that. I never really do anything in general. Most of my time down here, I've just been existing and staying in my apartment."

"Well, why don't _you_ like _him?"_ Stevie asked.

"Because he's an asshole."

"That's not a good answer."

"Okay, fine! I also hate how he has friends and I don't! I hate that people like him so much even though he doesn't deserve it! And why the hell is he so goddamn interested in Amelia?! Why does he have to have a crush on _her?!"_

"So _that's_ what it is."

"Yes! I hate Arin because he's trying to move in on Amelia when I've loved her for most of my life! Is _that_ what you wanted to hear?! How could I _not_ be angry about that?!" Mikey shut his eyes and pinched the skin between his eyebrows. "I just…I want a fighting chance, you know?"

"Have you considered the possibility that maybe Arin knows about your past with Amelia?" Stevie asked.

Mikey quickly looked up at him in puzzlement. "What? How could he possibly know about that? I've only ever talked to Toby about it."

" _I_ knew about it," Stevie pointed out.

"Yeah, but you know about everything," Mikey said dismissively. "That can't be helped."

"I'm just really good at eavesdropping," Stevie claimed. "Maybe he overheard Amelia talking about it to someone."

Mikey tried to consider this. Could it be possible that Amelia told people about her past friendship with him? Did she speak fondly of him?

"So if Arin were to know about this," Stevie continued, "maybe he sees you as competition."

Mikey let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, right," he said. "She and I barely speak anymore. The Aperture trip was the most I've spoken to her in a little over a decade, and that was maybe five sentences."

"You have a deeper connection with her than Arin could ever hope for," Stevie said. "If _I_ had a crush on Amelia, I'd definitely see you as a threat."

"You _don't_ , though, right?" Mikey asked. "You don't have a crush on Amelia?"

"No," Stevie said, smiling with amusement. "I'm into someone else. You wouldn't know her but she knows _you_."

"Who is it?"

" _My_ crush is a secret. Don't worry about it."


	23. Chap 23: Bad News

The next morning, Toby took Wheatley through the breakfast line in the cafeteria. He pointed out the cereals that he had already tried and which ones were best. He let Wheatley have a little more time picking out what to eat while he went to find a table for them to sit at. He spotted Amelia and Doug sitting at a table together, and started to walk towards them. As he weaved between the other tables, though, he could faintly make out what they were saying to each other.

"So...where do we go from here?"

"Um…I guess if you want to…..If you want to go steady, we can."

"Do _you?"_

"I wouldn't mind."

"Sounds good to me then."

Toby was able to force a smile as he pulled a chair up to their table. "Hey, guys!" he said in a cheery tone. _Might as well be friendly,_ he thought as he turned to Doug. "You must be Doug Rattmann," he said. "My name is Toby." He held out his hand and Doug shook it awkwardly.

"I don't know if you can tell," Amelia said to Doug, "but Toby is that android I told you about."

"You've got to be kidding," Doug said, eyebrows rising. "He looks like any ordinary human."

"Look at my pupils," Toby said. "You'll see it."

Doug looked into Toby's eyes who tried his best to hide the worry that was building inside him. "That's such a small detail," he said. "You're very well-built—not to mention well-programmed."

"You flatter me, Doug," Toby said jokingly. "I mean, I know I'm awesome but there's no need for a reminder."

"Toby!" Wheatley called from around the checkout station. "Hello? Where did you go? I don't know where to sit!"

"Do you mind if Wheatley and I sit with you guys?" Toby asked.

Amelia seemed amused as she watched Doug's face when something eventually clicked in his mind. "Wait, what do you mean about Wheatley _sitting_ here?" he asked

"Did you think they were only going to have a body for _me_ and not the only other AI in here?" Toby asked.

"Go ahead and bring him over," Amelia said.

As he headed for Wheatley, Toby took this opportunity to let himself dwell on the dread that was slowly forming inside him. Had Amelia and Doug really just decided to start dating that morning? Is that what Toby had heard? _Turns out Stevie was right,_ he thought solemnly.

"There you are!" Wheatley said once Toby got to him.

"Come on, we're gonna have breakfast with Amelia and Doug," Toby said.

Wheatley frowned slightly. "Doug? I don't think that's such a good idea," he said. "Doug doesn't like me very much, and frankly, _I_ don't like _him_ that much either."

"You guys are really buddies deep down inside," Toby said. "I can tell. Now come on, Amelia is waiting."

Wheatley reluctantly followed Toby to the table where Doug looked at him in shock, then he started laughing. "What's so funny?" Wheatley demanded with irritation.

"Sorry," Doug said. "It's just that they didn't hit too far off the mark of what you used to look like."

"Really?" Wheatley asked. "I did give them some details that Nora had told me about my human body."

"It's really weird to hear your voice coming out of that body, Wheatley."

"Same with you," Wheatley said. "I didn't get the chance to mention this the other day, but you cleaned up very well."

"Thanks," Doug said. "I kind of appreciate that."

"Hey, Amelia," Arin said, coming up to the table. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," Amelia said. "A little tired."

"Well, you better get more sleep for the next couple of days," Arin blabbed. "Anyway, when is the meeting tonight?"

"Around seven," Amelia said. "Spread the word."

"Okay. Nate said he would be around soon to look at Missy so I really need to get going. I'll tell him when the meeting is."

Arin left and Doug seemed to become a little anxious from this. Both he and Wheatley started interrogating Amelia about what the meeting was about, and she had to confess that it was about returning to Aperture. She didn't mention Nora, though. She only said that they were retrieving a piece of equipment that they needed. Doug and Wheatley tried to convince her not to go back.

Toby could barely pay attention to what was being said, though, as he noticed how very protective of Amelia Doug was acting. They really were into each other. _This is so bad,_ Toby thought. _What about Mikey? How could I possibly break this to him? I don't want to be the one to tell him but someone has to. I'd rather he not have to find out on his own. Poor kid._

After his talk with Stevie the previous day, Mikey was feeling a little more confident. If Arin saw him as competition then maybe he _was_. Maybe he actually had a chance with Amelia.

This new confidence made him decide to go to the gymnasium. Maybe if he got a little muscle, he could catch Amelia's eye more. Deep down, he knew that this was a stupid idea, but he still decided that maybe he should exercise just to stay healthy. He spent most of his days sitting at a computer so his heart never really needed to pump any faster than usual. If his heart was stronger, maybe he could avoid having a heart attack during one of his panic attacks.

He went to the gymnasium and borrowed a pair of sneakers from there. They looked like they'd only been worn once or twice. He also grabbed a pair of sweatpants that looked brand new.

It turned out that on that day, they were trying to organize a dodgeball match. Mikey hadn't played dodgeball in such a long time and it sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun.


	24. Chap 24: Dodgeball

**AN: Vampires have baseball, androids now have dodgeball. [cue laugh track]**

Mikey was delighted when Amelia came into the gymnasium with Toby and Wheatley. She looked so cute in sweatpants. She was explaining the rules to the two androids when he got to them. Wheatley was pointing out how barbaric the sport sounded, and Mikey realized that it really was kind of barbaric. However, rugby was comparably worse.

"Are you about ready to start, guys?" he asked as he approached them. Amelia seemed happy to see him and the butterflies in his stomach fluttered more.

"Yeah, we're just about ready," Amelia said. "Is there a team we can join?"

"If you guys all want to be on the same team, I think we can move a few people around." Mikey jogged over to speak with the referee.

"Mikey's such a nice guy," Toby said. "I hope people aren't taking advantage of him." He tried to hint very heavily to Amelia how he felt, but he didn't think she got it.

"He's still going on the mission, right?" Amelia asked.

"Oh, of course!" Toby said. "He says he wouldn't give up the chance to go back into Aperture. He wants to do some extensive comparisons between Aperture's technology and Black Mesa's." He was surprised how easily the lies flowed out of his mouth. He wasn't even sure _why_ he was lying.

"I can imagine that he would," Amelia said.

The referee suddenly blew his whistle and yelled, "Attention everyone! Get together in your teams and take your side!"

"Guys, over here!" Mikey called.

The trio came over to stand with him along the wall. Amelia stood just on the other side of Toby from him, and he felt his stomach twist into knots. He hoped that he wouldn't make a fool of himself during the game.

"Ready for this, Toby?" Mikey asked. "Do you think you can handle this?"

"Oh, I can handle it," Toby said. He was prepared to run out and grab a ball as fast as he could.

"Guys, don't run straight for the balls right away," Amelia advised. "You could easily get hit with everyone up there at once."

"Yeah, I think I might wait in the back for a bit," Wheatley said. "I'll be like a shadow waiting for the right moment to strike. And also waiting for a ball to roll toward me. I don't feel like fighting someone for a rubber ball. I also don't feel like getting hit in the face with one. I imagine that would really hurt in this body."

"Well, I'm going to just go for it," Toby said. "I think I can dodge them."

"That _is_ the idea, isn't it?" Wheatley said. "It is called dodgeball. I imagine a lot of dodging would be involved."

"Yeah, that's why it isn't called 'wait-in-the-back ball'," Toby said with a grin. Mikey couldn't help but laugh a little at this.

Once the game started, Mikey was impressed with how fast Toby moved. His reflexes were pretty quick and he moved swiftly as he snatched up balls from the floor and hurled them at the other people. Mikey hoped that Toby wasn't throwing too hard.

Wheatley was playing much differently. He stood behind people until they got hit with a ball. When a ball rolled over to him, Amelia called for him to toss it to her. Wheatley hesitantly picked up the ball and considered his options before attempting to hit someone with it. He barely hit a guy's leg, but he cheered about it as the other guy shuffled off to the side of the playing field.

"Wheatley! Watch out!" Amelia called.

A ball suddenly hit him right in the chest, causing him to double over as he gasped for breath. Mikey glared at Alex who appeared to be quite smug about his hit. Amelia hurried over to help Wheatley, and Mikey flinched when she shielded Wheatley from another hit by Alex. The ball bounced off of her lower back. Mikey felt the urged to run over and just punch Alex in his stupid face. He was able to restrain himself, though, as Amelia escorted Wheatley off the playing field. At least she would be safe now.

"Hey, Toby!" she called.

Toby side-stepped a ball and looked at her.

"Hit the guy wearing the yellow jersey!"

"What's a jersey?"

"Hit the guy with the yellow shirt!"

"Got it!"

Toby moved around his teammates swiftly to get to a ball right at the line. Mikey watched as Nate was reaching for the same ball from the opposite side of the line. Nate asked Toby something and after Toby replied, Nate quickly grabbed the ball and hurled it right at Alex. Mikey smiled as Alex moodily went off to the side and Toby gave Amelia a thumbs-up.

"Nice job, Toby," Mikey said as Toby backed away from the line to him.

"This is a fun game," Toby said, grinning. "Have you hit anyone yet?"

"I'm not much of a thrower," Mikey said. "My aim is horrible. I've mostly been dodging."

"Well, that's half of the game," Toby said.

They both moved to dodge a ball flying towards them, and Toby started weaving between his teammates again as he scooped up the rubber balls into his arms. Another ball shot right at Mikey but he was able to clumsily catch it in his arms. Wheatley was now back in the game because of him, but he didn't think Amelia had noticed that it was because of him. Wheatley headed right over to Toby for defense, but Toby ended up hitting someone in the head. Mikey cringed at this, hoping the person was okay.

As he looked around, Mikey suddenly realized that he was one of four people left on his team. The other team still had at least a dozen people. As Wheatley side-stepped to dodge a ball, it hit a teammate instead. Now they were down to three. Mikey knew that he should take some initiative and try to catch another ball, but he was too nervous to try.

Luckily, Nate noticed how much they were struggling. He gently tossed a ball to Wheatley who barely caught it. Amelia came back out onto the field to help Wheatley who bragged about his victorious catch. Mikey adored her as she humored Wheatley, letting the android believe that it was his skill that had gotten her back into the game. She looked around and her eyes briefly met Mikey's. She gave him a quick smile and a thumbs-up before turning back around to help Wheatley. Mikey smiled and stared at her for a few seconds before getting hit in the head with a ball.


	25. Chap 25: Distraction

**AN: Sorry that this is a short one and if it seems like the story is going too slowly. I promise it gets more exciting. I just recently wrote a more intense scene that'll be coming up so just look forward to that.**

Toby wanted to eat lunch with Wheatley and Amelia, but Mikey couldn't muster up the courage to sit at the same table as her. Instead, he sat with Stevie so they could chat about Nora's body. As Stevie tried to explain everything that they had to change to make a more feminine body, Mikey was distracted by Doug sitting down with Amelia. After a few seconds, Toby and Wheatley stood up and left the cafeteria. Stevie followed Mikey's gaze and grimaced slightly when he saw Amelia and Doug talking.

"I wonder why Toby and Wheatley left when Doug showed up," Mikey murmured. "And why are Doug and Amelia leaning so close to each other?"

"Who knows?" Stevie said nonchalantly. "Maybe Doug is talking about his schizophrenia and he doesn't want anyone else to hear."

"Maybe…"

"So did you run into any AIs in Aperture?" Stevie asked, desperate to change the subject. "Any like Wheatley?"

"Surprisingly, we didn't," Mikey said. "Which is kind of too bad because I'm curious to see if the others are similar."

"It doesn't sound like Nora is as, uh…thoughtless as Wheatley can be," Stevie pointed out.

"I hope she's not," Mikey said. "I just can't stand how whiney Wheatley can be sometimes."

"I get what you mean," Stevie said. "But I think I'm a little more tolerant of it."

Mikey just shrugged and stared at Amelia's table again.

"Do you think the templates for the Aperture Personality Constructs are similar to Black Mesa's?" Stevie asked, continuing on his mission to distract Mikey.

Mikey looked at Stevie with a pensive expression. "I don't know," he said. "I haven't really thought about it. I mean, I guess Wheatley's coding was different to Toby's, but I didn't really take the time to pick out the differences. Toby's original script was kinda complicated when I started off with it."

"Yeah, I've taken a look at the Black Mesa script before," Stevie said. "I wonder what GLaDOS' code looks like. It must be super complicated."

"Man, it would be so cool if I could just take a look at it," Mikey said. "But it's really risky."

"I guess you shouldn't take unnecessary risks."

They spoke about the AIs at Black Mesa and how they might compare to Aperture's for a little while longer. Stevie knew that he should tell Mikey about Amelia and Doug, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.


	26. Chap 26: The Meeting

Mikey was actually a little excited to be at the meeting that night. Stevie had gotten him pumped to check out the software at Aperture. As everyone waited for the meeting to start, Mikey rambled to Toby about how he was hoping he could find a disk or a USB drive that contained something interesting on it. More than anything, he wanted to find an AI template to make a friend for Toby. The android smiled and nodded at Mikey's enthusiasm, but it was a little less genuine this time as he stressed over the news of Amelia dating Doug. Someone needed to tell Mikey soon, but it could only be him or Stevie.

Speaking of, Mikey was a little surprised when he noticed that Stevie was sitting at the conference table. Before he could say anything to him, though, Amelia stood at the end of the table and called for everyone's attention.

"First of all," she said, "I want to thank you all for showing up. As you can see, we don't have many people coming back with us to Aperture. Grant refused to help me organize a larger group, but we don't need him to do this. We can make a list of what we need to bring and we'll gather our supplies tonight." Mikey smiled at how confident she seemed in her decision to return. "Now I assume that everyone knows why we're going back."

"I would hope so," Nate said with a chuckle. "You'd think a person would have bothered to learn why they're risking their life."

"I don't want anyone to think that there's a great chance of dying in there," Amelia said.

"But it _is_ pretty damn dangerous," Arin argued. Mikey's smile turned to a grimace. "With a computer that holds a grudge against humans controlling the place—and with us being the humans going in—the odds are a bit stacked up against us."

"Arin, please don't do this right now," Amelia said. Mikey caught a hint of annoyance in her tone which made him delighted. She must have rejected Arin, meaning that Mikey would have no competition to win her over.

Amelia suggested that they go around the table and list off things that they may need in Aperture. Nate suggested a first-aid kit and no one argued against this.

"Yeah, it would be dumb not to bring one," Mikey remarked nervously.

"Okay. First-aid kit," Amelia said as she wrote it down on a notepad. "Mikey, what do you say?"

"Um, rope?" Mikey asked. He shouldn't have been but he was startled by her addressing him directly.

"Rope is good," Amelia said. Everyone agreed and she wrote it down.

They went around the table and suggested things to bring. Nobody disagreed about anything until they got to Mikey again.

"Well, I kind of wanted to bring a video camera with me," he said. "Just to document our exploration."

"I think that's a stupid idea," Arin argued. "The camera would just be a waste of space in your backpack. It's completely unnecessary."

"I _like_ the idea," Amelia said. "It would be fun to watch years later. We could show it to younger generations, too, for entertainment." Mikey couldn't stop smiling at how she defended him.

"I also like the idea," Stevie said. "It could be useful to study and see what we can learn of Aperture in a safer environment."

Everyone else agreed that they'd like to document the trip so Arin eventually gave up on arguing against it.

"Now let's discuss teams," Amelia said. "I don't think having small groups is a good idea. What if something happens again?"

"But if we're in small groups, it's less likely that all of us will get hurt or caught," Arin said.

"Yeah, I agree with Arin," said Jon. "Maybe if we use trackers this time, we'll have a better idea of where the other groups are. You know, we're less likely to get lost."

"But if we're in one big group and we _do_ get lost," Nate said, "then at least we're all lost together. We're stronger in numbers."

"Yeah, that makes more sense to me," Mikey said. "I was terrified when Amelia disappeared." He regretted being so forward with how he'd felt during the last trip, but nobody seemed to care anyway.

"One of us could still disappear if we're in a big group," Arin pointed out.

"Natalie, back us up on this," Jon said.

"I'm declaring myself indefinitely neutral on this matter," Natalie said and scooted her chair back from the table.

"What about you, Stevie?" Arin asked. "What do you say?"

"I agree with Chief Amelia," Stevie said calmly. "I would feel better if I could see everyone."

"Toby, do you agree with that?" Mikey asked. "What do you think? You know you have a say in this, too, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Toby said. "Whatever Amelia says. I just don't want to ruffle any feathers right now."

"Then it's settled," Amelia said. "The majority says we stay in a large group."

"Okay, fine!" Arin shouted. "Let's just shoot down _everything_ that I say tonight! I'm going to bed. When are we meeting in the utility department tomorrow?"

"Um, around noon," Amelia said.

"Then I'll see you all at noon tomorrow." He stood up and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Did you….reject him today?" Jon asked Amelia.

"Well, uh…yeah," Amelia said sheepishly.

"He'll get over it," Jon said. He sighed. "At least you didn't take him for a ride and lead him on."

"Yeah, um, let's get back to the meeting now," Amelia stammered.

For the rest of the meeting, Amelia mostly went over how they should be careful of any traps in Aperture and to stick with the team at all costs. Mikey was distracted, though, by how uncomfortable Arin had made her.

 _This is why he doesn't deserve her,_ he thought bitterly


	27. Chap 27: The Let-Down

When Mikey and Toby got back from the meeting, Mikey felt pretty tired but somehow also a little energetic. He couldn't wait for tomorrow so he could start talking to Amelia more.

"I'm so nervous about tomorrow, Toby," he said as he slipped his shoes off. "I hope I can get a seat by Amelia on the bullet train. Are you excited, too? You might get to meet some really cool AIs in Aperture."

Toby couldn't take it anymore. He _had_ to tell him. "Mikey, I found something out this morning," he started. His tone made Mikey's heart sink with dread. "Amelia is…She's dating Doug. I heard them talking over breakfast and they basically agreed to start dating."

He watched Mikey's face, waiting for him to tear up. However, Mikey just stared blankly at the floor. He was silent for several seconds, making Toby increasingly uncomfortable.

"Mikey?"

"Whatever," Mikey finally said. He looked up and met Toby's gaze. His eyes were a bit misty but they weren't quite tearing up. "If she wants to date Doug then whatever. That's her choice. I'll still be happy if I can manage to rebuild the friendship that I had with her. I'm really tired so I'm gonna go to bed." He turned and headed down his hallway.

"Wait!" Toby called after him. "Are you okay? You're not really reacting as much as I expected."

"I'm fine, Toby," Mikey said. He opened his bedroom door but looked back at Toby briefly. "You should get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow."

* * *

Mikey spent most of that night lying curled up in his bed and convulsing with gasping sobs. He felt lost now. He had no direction in life, no real reason to exist except for the sake of Toby. What was he supposed to do now?

His sobs faded in and out of becoming mini-panic attacks. He struggled to breathe and wished that he had an inhaler to help him. He asked no one in particular why Amelia would've chosen Doug. Why _Doug?_

 _She barely knows him!_ Mikey screamed in his head. _I've known her longer than anyone else down here in this suffocating facility! I've been pining over her for almost two decades, and this crazy, practically middle-aged guy just shows up and steals her away from me!_

Meanwhile, Toby stared up at the ceiling as he lay on his back. Tears were running down from the corners of his eyes as he listened to Mikey having his panic attack. He wanted to help his friend but he knew that Mikey would just send him away again. He'd tried to knock on Mikey's door when it first started, but Mikey had insisted that Toby leave him alone.

He couldn't take any more of this, though. He couldn't bear to listen to his best friend crying so hard over a broken heart. As quietly as he could, he got out of bed and headed for the robotics lab. Maybe he could find something useful to download for tomorrow.


	28. Chap 28: Thank you?

Mikey was exhausted the next morning, but he didn't want to get any more sleep. He stared up at the ceiling of the bullet train as he reclined in his seat. Toby watched him worriedly, and Mikey knew it but he didn't say anything about it.

"So how's it going?" Toby finally asked.

Mikey just shrugged, not caring to take his eyes from the ceiling.

"I'm guessing you were told about Amelia, huh?" Stevie murmured.

"Of course _you_ already knew about it," Mikey grumbled. "But you didn't care to tell me earlier? You guys just let me go through the day all happy and thinking that I'd actually have a chance?"

"What're you guys talking about?" Natalie asked.

"None of your business," Mikey said. His tone wasn't harsh, though. He didn't care enough to snap at anyone right now.

"It's about Amelia," Toby said. "He doesn't like that she's dating Doug." Mikey groaned a little at Toby just blurting out his personal problems.

"You don't?" Natalie asked. "Wait, do you have a crush on her?"

Mikey just nodded absently.

"Awww! That's cute!" she said. "I mean, I thought that Amelia and Doug would make a good couple, but now I wanna see her with _you!"_

"Fuck Doug," Mikey grumbled. He finally looked away from the ceiling to glare at Natalie. "I've been in love with Amelia since we were both kids. I've been aching to be with her and wishing so hard that she would want to be friends again. It's not fair that Doug can just come in and take her away from me. Why does she have to like him like that? How could I be so incredibly unlucky?"

"That's even cuter!" Natalie exclaimed happily. "I kind of hope things don't work out between her and Doug so that she can end up with you!"

Mikey was confused by this response. "Really?" he asked.

"Of course! You guys would make such a good pair! And you know, she'd be really lucky to have you."

"Uhh…Why would that make her lucky?" Mikey asked.

"Because you're adorable!" Natalie said. "You're cute and smart and shy! I can see her really going for your type."

Mikey stared at her blankly for a few seconds while Toby looked like he was suppressing a chuckle. "Ummmm…..Thank…you?" Mikey finally said. "Sorry, I don't really know how to react. I've never been called cute."

"Oh, but don't get me wrong," Natalie said. "It's not like I have a crush on you or anything. I have my eyes on someone else."

"Is it me?" Toby asked jokingly.

"In your dreams," Natalie said and stuck her tongue out at him. "But anyway, I'm sorry that she's with Doug now. Do you want me to talk to her about it? I can try to talk you up to her."

"No!" Mikey said. "Please don't do that! Her love life technically isn't any of my business anyway."

"I don't think that's true," Toby said. "If you're in love with her—"

"Toby, stop," Mikey said.

"It's so cute, though!" Natalie exclaimed.

"No, it's not," Mikey insisted.

"You should really talk to her!" Natalie said excitedly.

"Yeah, she should know how you feel," Toby chimed in. "I'm sure that if you just talk—"

"SHUT UP!" Mikey shouted angrily. "Will you both please just shut the hell up?! I'm not going to talk to her! I'm not going to tell her how I feel! There's just no point!"

The train cart was silent for a few minutes. Natalie looked down as she picked at a loose thread on her shirt. Toby patted his hands on his legs in a random rhythm, trying to not seem uncomfortable with the tension. Stevie watched Mikey as he pouted at the floor.

 _How can I help this situation?_ Stevie thought. _This poor kid. What can I do to change this?_ He tried to think of something he could say but anything about Amelia would just upset Mikey even more. So reluctantly, he stayed quiet and let Mikey wallow in his heartache.


	29. Chap 29: Return to Aperture

**AN: When I read the words "portal gun", I've started picturing the one from Rick and Morty instead of Portal. That's all. I just thought it was weird.**

The light rain on the surface helped Mikey to relax a little. The sound of raindrops pattering on the leaves was soothing. As the group headed for Aperture, everybody else seemed to be enjoying the rain, too. Arin and Jon started pulling worms out from the mud and flinging them at each other. Toby eventually joined in. It was nice to see Toby having fun even if it didn't involve Mikey.

As he stayed in the back of the group, Mikey tried to distract himself with the idea of finding something useful in Aperture to take back with him. Stevie noticed Mikey lagging behind so he slowed down his pace to join him.

"How's it going?" he asked Mikey.

Mikey only shrugged, keeping his gaze down at the damp grass.

"You're not giving up, are you?"

Mikey looked up at him, his brow furrowed in irritation. "Why do you care?" he asked.

"I just don't think you should give up yet," Stevie said. "I mean, _so what_ if she's dating Doug? That doesn't mean she'll stay with him forever. What if they find out they're incompatible?"

Mikey didn't answer. He wasn't sure how to as he contemplated this.

"Hell, they could break up in a week," Stevie continued. "And the best way to start off a relationship is by being a supportive friend. At least, that's how _I_ see it."

"That girl that you said you have a crush on," Mikey started. "Are you friends with her?"

Stevie smiled. "She's my best friend," he said. "And I'm absolutely content with just that as long as I can be around her."

"Who is she?" Mikey asked.

"I don't reveal secrets, Mikey," Stevie said. "Especially not my own."

"Do you really think that Amelia might break it off with Doug in the future?"

"I didn't say that," Stevie said. "But things might not last between them. Also, if you're a good friend to her and show how much you care for her, she could potentially fall in love with you."

Mikey perked up a little at this. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, but the key to it is to _try_ ," Stevie advised. "You actually need to talk to her more and be a part of her life again. How will she fall for you if you're always off to the side? Do you get what I'm saying?"

Mikey nodded. "Yeah," he said. "You're right. I know you're right. I'll try to do more. Um, thanks for the pep-talk."

"Any time you need it, man," Stevie said. "Just come to me and I'll help."

"Hey, I thought you said that you weren't coming with on this trip," Mikey pointed out.

Stevie shrugged. "I changed my mind. I knew I had to get to the surface and see it all for myself. It'd still be a good idea to document the trip, though."

They finally came to the chain-link fence with the hole cut in it. As they walked through the melted door, Mikey dug around in his bag until he found his camera. He turned it on and reminded himself which buttons did what. He planned on trying to focus more on the mission and finding some software to take back instead of moping. There was no use in that.

"So which department do you guys want to look through first?" Amelia asked. "Testing, manufacturing, administration, the examination rooms, or the laboratories?"

"Well, where do you think a little bot would be hiding?" Nate asked.

"She worked in the Companion Cube manufacturing department, right?" Mikey pointed out. "That sounds like a good place to start."

"But GLaDOS would be expecting her to be there," Arin said.

"Do you think she could be looking for more humans?" Toby asked. "Where do they keep the humans in stasis?"

"We'd have to check a directory," Amelia said, turning around to search the lobby.

"May I make a suggestion?" Stevie asked. Everyone turned to look at him, seeming surprised that he was talking at all. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "I've been talking to Wheatley a lot in the last few days and I've been reviewing the interview tape," he said. "Wheatley says that Nora was very fond of Doug and that she 'collaborated with Doug against him.' It seems to me that Nora would only feel safe with Wheatley or Doug. As far as we know, Nora has no idea that we took Doug back with us last time. She's a determined little bot so I think she'll still be looking for him. He has those hideouts along the testing tracks, right? The testing area is probably our best shot."

"You make a pretty good point," Jon said. "I dub thee our brainy guy of the group." Only Mikey noticed the tiny smirk that appeared on Stevie's face.

"I think Stevie's right, too," Amelia said. "So we'll go through the testing area. This is a very dangerous section of the facility. We need to decide on who will be carrying the portal guns. Nate had to test with one the last time he was here so I think he should have one."

"I'm up for that," Nate said. "My arm is feeling a lot better now."

"Good. You'll need it," Amelia said. "Arin has had some experience, too. He's been playing around with a portal gun, haven't you, Arin?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Arin said. "I don't know if I'm really ready to use it when I _need_ to, though." Mikey was a bit annoyed with Arin's modesty. He knew that he could handle it. He was probably just trying to look good in Amelia's eyes even though she was already taken.

"Give yourself more credit," Amelia said. "You know you could handle it."

"She's right," Jon said. "You're used to holding it and levitating things with it."

"I'll _try_ but I make no promises," Arin said.

"Who gets the last one?" Mikey asked.

"Who _wants_ it?" Nate asked.

"Ooh! I do!" Toby said excitedly. "I don't know what it does but it seems like a big deal."

Mikey frowned a little. "Maybe you _shouldn't_ have it, Toby," he said. "No offense, but I think it should be in the hands of someone who knows how to use it."

"Well, Amelia has _held_ one before," Nate said. "She's also seen how it works."

"I don't know about that," Amelia said.

"Come on, Amelia," Arin said. "You're our leader. It seems appropriate for you to be holding one of the portal guns."

"Well, if you guys really think I should hold it," Amelia said. "Unless Mikey, Stevie, or Natalie wants to hold it."

"I'm good," Stevie said.

"It looks kind of intimidating," Mikey said, giving it a genuinely uneasy look. "And I'm afraid I'd break it."

"Yeah, same with me," Natalie said. "I'd feel terrible if I fell on it."

"Okay, suit yourselves," Amelia said.

Nate and Toby put down three large duffle bags that contained the portal guns. Nate, Arin, and Amelia each took one, and tried to get used to holding the device in their hands. The duffle bags could be zipped up in a way that compacted them and made them able to fit inside their backpacks. Then Amelia led them through a door that said "Testing Initiative".

As they walked down the hallway, Mikey pointed his camera around to record everyone's expressions as they began their expedition into Aperture once more. However, he found that he kept directing the focus onto Amelia. She looked so nervous about leading everyone. _She shouldn't feel so nervous, though,_ Mikey thought. _She's great at leading. She knows everyone's strengths and weaknesses, and she's so kind._ A faint smile spread across his lips. How could he ever even _consider_ giving up on her? She was so perfect.

The hallway that they walked down was completely without doors save for the one they had come in through. It took a while until they actually came across some doors, but when they tried to open several of them, they were all locked.

"We shouldn't be looking _inside_ the test chambers, anyway," Stevie said. "Nora spent most of her time behind the walls of the test chambers. How do we get behind the walls?"

"I don't know," Amelia said, seeming to get a bit exasperated at they're first obstacle. "I have no idea. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"I do," Toby said. He had an impish grin on his face. "Guess what I did before we left the compound."

"Toby, what did you do?" Mikey asked. Judging by Toby's tone, it was probably something he shouldn't have done.

"I downloaded a copy of all of Wheatley's memories into my own memory bank," Toby said. "I have a map of Aperture in my head."

"Toby, that's an invasion of Wheatley's privacy!" Mikey said. He was a little disappointed that Toby would do something so rude like looking through somebody else's mind. "You can't just download his memories!"

"Hold on a minute, Mikey," Arin said. "This is actually great. Now we can't get lost. Toby, why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"I kind of knew that someone would get mad at me," Toby said, the smile gone from his face now. Mikey filled with guilt as he regretted scolding his friend. "I know it was rude of me, but you guys were so worried about getting lost. I felt like I had to do something." Mikey was about to apologize but was interrupted.

"Wait, so you have all of Wheatley's memories?" Amelia asked. "Even the ones about Nora?"

Toby smiled again at the mention of her name. "Yeah," he said. "She's such a cute little personality core. I can't wait to find her."

"Let's start with getting 'behind the scenes'," Nate said. "How do we get on the catwalks and such?"

"Well, let's get into an observation deck first," Toby said. "There has to be at least one test chamber hooked up to one of these doors. The test chambers are able to move around to different parts of the facility. Worst case scenario, GLaDOS has moved all of them away from here."

They tried to open a few more doors until Stevie found one that was unlocked. They all packed themselves into an observation deck and Toby booted up the PC on the desk. He pushed his hoodie sleeve up to his elbow and turned his wrist over to expose the more vulnerable side. The skin on his wrist moved to create an opening just big enough for a USB jack to be pulled out with a retractable cable.

"Did you…Did your skin just move?" Jon asked as he grew pale. "Really?"

"Yeah, we added that feature to the original Black Mesa design," Arin said.

"It can only stretch so far, though," Stevie chimed in.

"And it's not very comfortable to do," Toby said, plugging the jack into a USB port. "Let me get access to the test chamber really quick….Okay, got it. Look inside the chamber."

As everyone looked through the large window into the chamber, they saw a panel move aside.

"Well done, Toby," Stevie said.

"You know, we should probably find some Long Fall Boots," Nate said.

"Oh, I can get those," Toby said.

There was a large tube coming down from the ceiling in the test chamber. After a few seconds, a bunch of Long Fall Boots fell out of the tube and onto the tiled floor.

"Wait, there are eight of us, right?" Toby asked.

"Um, yeah," Amelia said.

Two more boots fell out of the tube.

"I'm proud of you, Toby," Mikey said, smiling. He was glad that Toby had tagged along.

"How are we gonna get into the test chamber, though?" Nate asked.

Toby unplugged himself from the computer and took off his hoodie. He wrapped the hoodie around his hand for protection and punched through the window. The glass shattered and he put his hoodie back on after shaking it out a bit.

"How did you break that glass?" Jon asked. "That was pretty thick glass."

"Keep in mind that his design was originally for military androids," Arin explained.

"Yeah, I'm pretty epic," Toby said in a mockingly cocky tone.

 **Additional AN: I just realized how ironic this part is: ["Toby, that's an invasion of Wheatley's privacy!" Mikey said. He was a little disappointed that Toby would do something so rude like looking through somebody else's mind.] Because in Frowns, that's exactly what Mikey does but with Doug instead of Wheatley.**


	30. Chap 30: Sentimental

As they walked around on the catwalks with the Long Fall Boots, Mikey was fascinated by Toby as he recalled various memories of Wheatley's. He would point to something, and would mention how much Nora had laughed at this or how Nora had reacted to that. Toby seemed to affectionately talk about Nora as though the memories of her were his own. He had inherited Wheatley's feelings for her.

Toby's cheeriness abruptly ended, though, as they came to a particular test chamber. It appeared to be quite ordinary with a pointless trench in the middle and a dispensary tube set right above one of the large red buttons.

"I'm surprised that GLaDOS hasn't destroyed this yet," Toby said quietly. He suddenly seemed quite grave as he stared into the chamber as though there were dead bodies inside.

"Toby? Are you okay?" Amelia's voice was full of sweet concern that made Mikey's heart melt a little.

Toby's jaw was quivering slightly. "Yeah," he said. His voice cracked but he tried to cover it up by clearing his throat. "Don't worry about me. It's just that Wheatley did something….pretty bad in this chamber."

"What did he do?" Mikey asked reluctantly. He was pretty sure he already knew, though.

Toby took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before he could speak again. "He hurt Nora a lot. He beat her pretty badly and Doug had to rescue her. Can we please get away from this one now?" His voice broke again with this last sentence.

"Yeah, of course," Amelia said. "Lead the way."

As Toby led everyone away from the chamber, Mikey caught Amelia watching the android with gentle concern. He felt so much emotion between Toby's anguish and Amelia's kindness towards Toby.

* * *

The group walked for the rest of the day. They only stopped once so that they could have lunch. They figured that the fewer breaks they took, the quicker they might find Nora. However, there weren't any signs of a personality construct having been around recently. It was a bit hard to find signs, though, when they had no idea what they were looking for. When it started getting late, they decided to look for somewhere to camp for the night. Toby knew where several of Doug's hideouts were so he led them to one quite easily. They unfurled their sleeping bags and settled into the small space.

There were strange paintings all over the walls of this hideout. They made Mikey feel a little uneasy. Especially the blackened head with what seemed to be glowing white eyes being held up by two long arms. It sort of looked like something stringy was hanging down from the base of the head. Was this what Doug's mind was like? If so, Mikey worried for Amelia.

 _This is a little dark,_ he thought. _I hope that Amelia never has to see this side of him. Why does she have to be with someone so potentially dangerous? It'll just make me worry more._

* * *

After everyone had gone to bed, Mikey could hear Amelia slide out of her sleeping bag and quietly sneak away onto the catwalk. He reluctantly got out of his comfortable position in the sleeping bag and followed. His footsteps were even quieter than hers. He didn't go out onto the catwalk, though. He stayed at the edge of the hideout where she couldn't see him. What was she doing out of bed? She wasn't going off to do some searching on her own, was she?

There was a crackle as Amelia started up a call using a long-distance communicator. Mikey knew who she was trying to contact even before they had answered. She spoke with Doug and gave him an update about the search. Of course, she continued to refer to Nora as a piece of equipment. She asked how his day went and he mentioned getting into an argument with Wheatley. Amelia scolded him for not getting along with Wheatley. Mikey had to smile at this. He couldn't imagine Amelia ever actually being stern so it was adorable when she tried to be. And he agreed with Doug when he said that Wheatley could be frustrating.

The smile slipped from Mikey's face as Amelia and Doug started getting all sentimental with each other. They said that they missed each other, and ended the conversation with "I love you". Mikey's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. He couldn't stand hearing her say those words directed at someone else. He was quick to get back to his sleeping bag before Amelia had the chance to catch him.

 **AN: This is the last chapter I'll be posting for a while. Yeah, I'm going on hiatus again. My motivation to write this right now is kind of low. I really just wanted to post it so I could share all of the ideas I had jumbling around in my head. But for now, I think I'll focus on school work so I can finally be done with college.**

 **Thank you to anyone who's been reading. I'd love to hear what you think so far.**


	31. Chap 31: Self-Pity

**AN: I'm gonna try to get back into posting Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday again. At this point, I don't have many chapters already written yet (I have 7 including this one). But don't you worry, I'm trying my best to find more time to write this. Finals have been gruesome but they're almost over. Anyway, enjoy this chapter and thank you for reading.**

The group awoke early in the morning for a quick breakfast before taking off again. The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful so Mikey had plenty of time to mope about the previous night. He pointed the camera around as he walked, but he couldn't stop thinking about hearing Amelia talk to Doug on the communicator. She had sounded so sweet and loving while she'd been talking to Doug. Mikey longed for her to talk to _him_ like that. It was hard for him to accept that she was dating Doug, yet he found that he couldn't be surprised.

 _Of course she's dating someone else,_ Mikey thought. _It's just my luck, right? It'd also be my luck if she ended up staying with him for the rest of her life. And I'll end up a lonely, pathetic creep that watches her from the other side of the cafeteria. Some things will never change._

Mikey was so engrossed in his thoughts that he almost ran into Toby who had suddenly stopped.

"Hold up, guys," Toby said quietly.

"What is it?" Amelia asked.

Toby just shushed her as he looked down through the grated floor of the catwalk. Everyone followed his gaze and saw two bots that appeared to be endoskeletons on the catwalk below. One was shorter and round with a blue eye while the other was more oblong with an orange eye. The sound of Toby shushing Amelia drew their attention, and these eyes were transfixed on the android.

"Oh crap," Toby muttered.

"What are those?" Amelia wondered.

"They look like robots," Mikey said. "Not as advanced as Toby, but they seem smart enough to know what we are."

The bots seemed to stare up at the group curiously. Then the blue-eyed one started getting all excited as he nudged the orange-eyed one and made a sound like a low chirp. The orange-eyed one responded with higher chirps. The two of them looked around and spotted a lift that could take them up to the catwalk with the humans.

"Guys, quick!" Toby said. "Turn around and head back the other way! They're planning on getting up here! Go!"

Everyone turned around and headed back the way they came. They stopped at a fork in the catwalk to catch their breath. It took Mikey a little bit longer without the aid of his absent inhaler but he was able to hide his struggle.

"Well, this is just great!" Arin said. "Now GLaDOS knows we're here!"

"Let's not get too worked up about this," Nate said. "She was going to find out eventually. We're lucky that those robots didn't catch up to us."

"We should get going, though," Mikey said. "We don't want to take any chances."

They continued on their way, but Toby was very alert now as he was constantly looking up and down the catwalk. Mikey couldn't blame him. He didn't know what GLaDOS would have the bots do to them if they found the group of humans again.

* * *

Toby was able to bring a small bathroom to the edge of the catwalk for everyone to have a bathroom break. Mikey used it but then sat by himself for the rest of the time. He had the camera off for now so he could just stare down through the grated floor. Below was an endless void of fog. For some reason, he didn't care so much at the moment. It didn't scare him that he would probably fall to his death if this catwalk suddenly collapsed.

 _I'd almost welcome it._ He regretted letting this thought go through his head. He wasn't suicidal. He didn't want to die. But he couldn't exactly say that he wanted to go on living either. _Why did I have to devote myself so fully to her?_ he berated himself. _That was so stupid. Now I don't feel motivated to do anything anymore. What's wrong with me? Normal people aren't like this. Normal people don't focus so hard on_ one thing _that it becomes their sole purpose for living. I mean, for Chrissake, I wasn't even trying to talk to her! I wasn't trying at all! I have no right to be so melodramatic about something that wasn't going anywhere!_

He listened to Toby reassure Amelia that the bots wouldn't get them, and Mikey found himself growing jealous of Toby. He wished he could be like Toby in that he could talk to Amelia so confidently. Maybe if he was like that, he could've won her over years ago.

 _How the hell did I end up creating somebody so charismatic?_ he wondered to himself. _It's almost ironic._

Toby noticed Mikey sitting by himself and decided to go join him. "How you holding up?" he asked Mikey as he sat down in front of him.

Mikey shrugged, not looking up from the void. "I'm fine, I guess."

"Really? Cuz your tone says otherwise."

"I don't know what to tell you then."

"Hey." Mikey reluctantly looked up and met Toby's concerned gaze. "It's not the end of the world," Toby reassured. "I know that things probably seem—"

"Toby, I don't mean to be a dick, but you have no idea how things 'seem' to me right now," Mikey said.

"I just think you need to have more hope," Toby said. "Just….Stop focusing so damn much on becoming her boyfriend." He seemed to be growing annoyed with Mikey's sour attitude. "You're being greedy. If you keep complaining about how you're not even friends with her then why do you think you deserve to be her boyfriend? Do you even really know her anymore?"

Mikey glared down again, not wanting to answer. He didn't even want to consider the question. Of course he knew Amelia, but it wasn't through socializing—it was from observation.

Toby sighed. "I'm sorry. I…I want to see you end up with her, but that's not gonna happen from doing nothing. So stop moping because she probably doesn't want to be with someone who acts so miserable because he isn't getting what he wants."

"Okay, fine, you're right," Mikey grumbled without looking up. "Both you and Stevie are right. I know I need to talk to her. I know I need to be her friend. I know, I know, I know. But can I please have just a little bit of time to be human and feel sorry for myself?"

Toby couldn't help but feel slightly offended at this. A little bit of time to be human? It was like Mikey was making a jab at him. Toby did his best to convince himself that Mikey hadn't meant anything by it. "Okay, I'll leave you alone for now," he said. "I'm gonna go talk to Stevie." He stood and left Mikey who immediately felt lonely and regretted acting so cold toward his only friend.


	32. Chap 32: Familiar Place, Familiar Face

**AN: My brutal finals are almost done. Soon I can relax a little. I'm thinking of just dropping out, though. I mean, what's an art degree going to do for me? Employers mostly care about your portfolio, right? And besides, all school is doing is stressing me out and shaving off years of my life. I'd love any advice on what to do about this.**

 **Enough of my boring life. Let's go into Mikey's more exciting adventures.**

There was a tension amongst the group on the third day. Everybody was on-edge at the thought of GLaDOS catching them. They were pretty lucky that they hadn't been found at this point, but Mikey couldn't help feeling suspicious. Hadn't the bots told her about the group of humans by now? If so, why was she waiting to act? They hadn't noticed security cameras popping up to watch them. They hadn't even so much as heard the facility shifting as though she were looking for them.

Nobody felt any better when the catwalk ended at a door. Mikey almost felt like it was a trap, but where else were they supposed to go? Toby seemed to hesitate before reaching out and turning the doorknob. He pushed the door open to a long, grungy hallway with decaying walls and missing tiles. Some of the lights overhead flickered, making it look ominous.

"Should we turn back?" Amelia asked, trying to hide the unease in her voice. "I mean, what do you guys think?"

"Well, it sure doesn't look inviting," Nate said. "But on the other hand, it doesn't look particularly _dangerous_ either."

Mikey looked around at the rotting holes in the walls. He couldn't make out anything on either side of the hallway. A small pit of dread started to expand inside him, but he tried not to show it.

"This looks really familiar."

"What was that, Toby?" Mikey asked, turning his attention to his friend. Everybody else suddenly turned to look at Toby, as well.

"I think we should go down this way," Toby said, not taking his eyes off of the management rail. "It looks familiar to Wheatley."

"Okay, lead the way," Amelia said.

As he led them down the hall, Toby kept his eyes on the management rail. Everybody else looked out through the holes in the walls, but Mikey watched Toby curiously. What was with that studious expression on Toby's face? Mikey had rarely seen such a serious look on the android's face.

"Hey, Toby," Jon said. "Do you know what those giant boxes are that seem to be suspended over nothing by rails? Please don't say they're for human storage."

Toby's gaze finally tore away from the management rail to look out through one of the holes. "Oh!" he exclaimed excitedly. "That's the Aperture Extended Relaxation Center. I used to be…..I mean, Wheatley. _Wheatley_ used to be in charge of this wing. It was used for test subjects in long-term stasis. This is where he found that woman. The test subject that helped him take over the facility."

"So you have a good idea of where we are, right?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, absolutely," Toby said. "Wheatley knows this part of the facility better than any other."

"Can GLaDOS reach us here?" Amelia asked.

"She could but she most likely won't look for us here."

"Great!" Nate said eagerly. "This will be the perfect place to settle for the night."

"It's not even close to night time yet," Amelia pointed out. "Actually, we should stop for lunch soon."

"Still a good place for a rest," Nate said. Something seemed to be bothering him, but Mikey didn't know what it could possibly be. His tone was cheery but his eyes looked like he was stressing out over something particular.

"Nate's right," Amelia said. "We should find a way into one of those boxes—"

"Chambers," Toby corrected.

"Right," Amelia said. "We need to get into one of those chambers so we can rest comfortably. Toby, what do you say? Can you get us into one of those?"

"Well, I suppose I can," Toby said. "We'll need to keep going down this hallway. And keep in mind that not all of the chambers are in a condition safe enough to stay in. They're wasting away like everything else here."

The mood of the group was instantly lifted as they thought about what luxuries these "relaxation chambers" might contain. Mikey couldn't relax, though. Toby seemed so troubled by something but Mikey had no idea what. He started to worry that Wheatley's memories were corrupting Toby's personality.

 _We'll have to have those memories removed as soon as we can,_ Mikey thought. _I really don't like the possibility of Wheatley's personality bleeding into Toby's._

Mikey noticed that Amelia was also looking at Toby with concern, and it almost made him forget any of his worries. What an angel. What a sweet, gentle person. As he stared at her, she happened to notice him and turned her gaze to him. His heart jumped into his throat and his stomach twisted nervously. He was terrified that she'd react with a look of disgust or look away uncomfortably. She didn't, though. She smiled gently at him. She understood Mikey's worries about Toby. Mikey's heart melted and he could feel his face turn red as he smiled back.

Up ahead, the hall took a turn to the right. Mikey flinched with surprise when something suddenly glided in on the management rail from around that corner. After being around Wheatley so much, Mikey instantly recognized this to be a personality core. It looked a bit smaller than Wheatley had, though, and the optic was bright purple with a deep purple pupil. This pupil shrank when the core stopped and stared at the group in shock.

"Nora?" Amelia called over to the core.

"Nora!" Toby said happily. "We found you!"

Nora didn't seem to ease up at all at the fact that these strangers instantly recognized her. Amelia noticed this and cautiously took a step toward the core.

"Don't be scared," she said. "Please. We're here to help you. We want to take you out of here."

"H-How do you know who I am?" Nora asked quietly.

"Well, I was going to make this a surprise for you," Amelia said sheepishly. "We're here to get you for your friend Doug." Mikey felt a brief rush of anger run through him at the mention of Doug. He was easily able to hide it, though.

Nora had a much different reaction at the mention of her friend as she relaxed a little. "Doug?" she asked. "H-He's alive?"

Amelia smiled with relief. "Of course," she said. "But he doesn't know that we're here to get you. You're going to be a surprise for him."

"And what a surprise you'll be for Wh—" Toby started to say.

"Him!" Amelia interrupted. "You'll be quite the surprise for Doug." Mikey thought it was odd that she would suddenly interrupt Toby. She usually didn't cut people off.

"How are you guys going to find your way out, though?" Nora asked. "This place can be pretty intricate."

Toby tried to speak again. "Well, I have Wh—"

"A really good map that was taken from a file in the facility," Amelia said. "We were so lucky to find it. This guy is actually an android and he can hold electronic files."

"No, I was talking about Wh—"

"The map? She already mentioned it, Toby," Mikey said. He'd caught on by now. Amelia still wanted to keep a surprise for Nora. He fully endorsed this idea. As much as he didn't like Wheatley, he thought that the two bots deserved a happy reunion.

Nora's bottom eyelid was up slightly and it made her appear happy. "Wow," she said. "So you're like an artificial intelligence inside a human body?"

Toby grinned proudly as he gave her such a dreamy look. "I sure am," he said. He flexed his bicep for her in a joking manner. "Do you like it?"

"It's….impressive," Nora said bashfully. Toby blushed at her shyness, and Mikey had never noticed before that Toby had the ability to do this. It was a bit of an odd feature to include for a military android design.

"We should probably get going," Nate said. "Nora, it's mighty fine to meet you, but we can exchange pleasantries and introductions in a nice, safe relaxation chamber."

"Oh, you're trying to get into one of those?" Nora asked. "I know how to get there. Follow me." She turned around and slid along the rail. Mikey smiled at how happy she was now to be leading this group of humans. He smiled even more, though, at how relieved Amelia obviously was to find Nora.


	33. Chap 33:Acceptance

Toby couldn't stop grinning at Nora. She was so cute with her big purple eye. She looked at him all shy with her lower optic lid raised and her upper lid slightly lowered. He couldn't help himself, and after ten minutes, he finally decided to get up from one of the beds in the relaxation chamber to approach her.

"Hey," he said. "How's it going?"

"Good," Nora said quietly. "Um, your name is Toby, right?"

"Yup," he said. "You know, you have a very lovely eye."

Her pupil shrank from surprise, and he hoped he wasn't being too forward. "Th-Thank you," she said awkwardly.

Amelia suddenly called Nora over and she excused herself before gliding away on the management rail. Toby went back to sit next to Mikey on the bed.

"Toby, I don't think it's a good idea to get too involved with Nora," Mikey said bluntly. "I mean, she's in love with Wheatley so…"

"Yeah, but I have all of Wheatley's memories," Toby pointed out. "I know what she likes and how to make her happy. Plus, she has no reason to hold a grudge against me since I've never wronged her in any way so I already have _that_ over Wheatley."

"Toby…You really shouldn't have that mentality about this," Mikey said worriedly. "Seriously, you're just going to end up complicating things even more between her and Wheatley."

Toby's smile dropped into a frown as he looked down sadly. "Well, at least I'm actually _doing_ something about my feelings," he muttered.

Mikey scowled at this. "Don't get all bitter with me because I'm trying to save you some heartache. You know I only have the best intentions in mind for you."

Toby only shrugged and turned away from Mikey slightly. Mikey was about to say more but he suddenly caught a fragment of Amelia having a conversation. He got up and subtly moved to the bed closer to her so he could hear better. She sat in a corner of the room with Nora hanging over her. It seemed that she was trying to contact Doug via the communicator again.

Amelia happily told Doug that they'd start heading back now that they'd found the "equipment" that they'd come back for. Again, they exchanged "I love you"s before disconnecting. Amelia had to explain to Nora that she was dating Doug, and Nora seemed pretty happy for them. Mikey was surprised to find that he was starting to accept the fact. Doug seemed to make her happy, and of anybody she could've been dating, Mikey supposed he should be glad that it was Doug.

 _He seems like a decent guy,_ Mikey thought. _He's not cocky like Arin is and he's smart. Maybe I need to let this go. I've moped long enough about this. My main focus now should be trying to become friends with Amelia and Doug. Even if I have to be a third wheel, at least I'll have friends._

He stared down at the floor for a few minutes as he tried to let this all sink in. Stevie noticed and shuffled over to sit next to him. "How's it going?" Stevie asked quietly.

"Better than before," Mikey mumbled.

"That's good," Stevie said. "Right now, let's just worry about getting all of us out of here alive. Then we can fix whatever's up with Toby. I'm sure you've noticed Wheatley's memories trickling into Toby's, right?"

"Yeah, I noticed," Mikey said. "We should take care of it as soon as we can. You don't….think that Wheatley's personality might mix with Toby's, do you?"

Stevie shrugged. "We'll have to see how much code has been corrupted before I can take a guess at that."

"I'm sure I can fix anything that needs fixing in him," Mikey said. "I _have_ to. I know his code better than anyone else could."

"I can't argue with you there since you _did_ code him," Stevie said. "I'm confident in your abilities. Oh, but maybe you can help us with Nora's code before that. Like you did with Wheatley."

"Sure, I'll help with that," Mikey said. "Anything that can keep me productive."


	34. Chap 34: Promise Broken

Mikey listened to Amelia make up a lie for Nora about how they'd "come across information" that suggested someone might still be alive in Aperture. He had to admit that she was quite good at improvising. Though Nora seemed so happy to hear about Doug's successful rescue that she'd believe anything Amelia said. Mikey couldn't help but notice the hint of jealousy on Toby's face as Nora gushed about how great of a friend Doug was. Was this coming from Wheatley's memories? How much of Toby did these secondhand memories affect?

Toby's mood improved when Nora started telling Amelia about Wheatley and how they'd been such great friends. He looked so happy to hear Nora speak so fondly of someone who wasn't him. Mikey worried more about his android friend with every passing minute. He thought about the way he'd been so cold toward Toby earlier when they were taking a break. _I should really apologize to him soon,_ he thought. _But right now he seems too preoccupied._

Nora told Amelia about Wheatley taking over but being stopped by a test subject in the facility. She sadly explained how GLaDOS had taken back control and let her friend be sucked out into space.

"I bet that test subject could have helped a little more," Toby butt-in. "She just let GLaDOS knock him out of her grip."

"Well, I wouldn't say _that_ ," Nora said. "I'm sure that woman did all that she could to hang onto him."

"But if she had pulled him back in, he could have made up with you, and he wouldn't be feeling so guilty."

"That's assuming that he hasn't run out of power or crashed down to Earth," Nora mumbled.

Toby's heart sank as she said this. He hadn't meant to upset her. He had to say something to make this better. "I'm sure Wheatley's fine," he said. "Be more optimistic. But if you need a shoulder to cry on, you can always come to me."

"Thank you, Toby," Nora said. She didn't seem to be in a better mood, though.

Mikey turned his attention away from this, not wanting to see the pain in Toby's eyes. He looked forward down the catwalk. "Guys, stop," he said, freezing where he was. As he stared forward, he saw two mechanical figures walking shoulder-to-shoulder right toward them. Everybody else stopped and looked at him in confusion. "Look up ahead," he said. "Aren't those the robots that we saw earlier?"

As everybody looked ahead, the robots stopped walking as it was obvious that they had been spotted. Nobody moved or spoke for a few moments. Mikey wondered what he should be prepared to do. He decided that if the robots came any closer, he would step between them and Amelia to keep her safe. He wasn't going to be separated from her in this place again. For now, though, he just stood still as though the robots might not see them if he didn't move.

Nobody spoke or moved for a while—save for the nervous twitches from the robots as they watched the group awkwardly. Toby decided to break the silence as he stepped forward. "What do you guys actually want?"

The tall bot chirped.

"Me?" Toby asked. "Why? I'm nothing special."

"That's not true," Mikey said, thinking that his recent attitude had put down his friend. "You're probably the first artificial intelligent android to function just like a human in almost every way."

"Thanks for the help, Mikey," Toby said very sarcastically. "Okay, listen, fellow robots. We can be reasonable about this. If I go with you willingly, will you leave the humans and Nora alone?"

The two bots discussed this briefly with each other before the blue-eyed one nodded.

"Toby, I won't allow you to just give yourself up," Mikey insisted as dread started to slowly grow in him.

"Yeah, you're staying with us," Amelia said.

"I'll be fine," Toby said. "Really. I want to see what they want with me anyway. Just keep Nora safe and get up to the surface." He started towards the bots, but Amelia stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Don't you dare leave us," she commanded. "I'm in charge of this mission, and I order you to stay with the group. We can get away from these guys." She looked desperate to keep Toby with the group, but she didn't let that show in her voice.

Toby leaned in toward her, and Mikey could hear as he whispered to her. "I'll escape and find you guys. I promise. Just make sure that you and Nora get out of here safely. Get back to Doug and live happily ever after." Then Toby just turned around and walked away with the bots. Mikey wanted to shout at Toby to get his ass back with the group. He wanted to remind Toby of his promise to stick with Mikey no matter what. Hell, he even wanted to command Toby to return to them as his creator—possibly angering or hurting the android's feelings. But Mikey couldn't find his voice. All he could do was watch Toby walk away as his heart sank lower and lower.

Sadly, he looked around at the rest of the group. Amelia looked so helpless as she stared after Toby. It would seem that she felt the same way that Mikey did. He looked up at Nora who was glaring at the bots. Then she suddenly turned to face the majority of the group. "Come on, let's go," she grumbled. "I know a quick way to GLaDOS' chamber."

"Wait, why are you so eager to save Toby?" Amelia asked. "It's going to be dangerous. You could get smashed by her."

"I don't care," Nora said. "I'm sick of her ruining my life. If we're leaving this place, we're leaving with _everyone_. Just up ahead of us there's a split in the catwalk. They'll go down the left path but we'll go down the right. Now try to keep up."

She started to glide down the management rail, and everyone else followed quickly. Mikey was surprised that she was suddenly so determined to save Toby. Maybe Toby had a chance with her after all.


	35. Chap 35: An Odd Turret

There was suddenly a lot more activity in the facility now that GLaDOS had Toby. Panels moved around to form or collapse walls, glass tubes carried Weighted Storage Cubes to other parts of the facility—even whole rooms were moved around alongside the catwalk. Mikey felt really uneasy about this. What did it mean? Was GLaDOS preparing tests for Toby to go through? He really hoped not. He hated the idea of Toby being pushed to the point of exhaustion. Despite him being an android, every machine has its own limitations.

Mikey looked over at Amelia—as per usual—and noticed a troubled expression plastered to her face as she gazed up at Nora. What was going through Amelia's head? Why did she look like she might have a nervous breakdown?

"Hey, Nora," she suddenly said. "You seem pretty riled up. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nora insisted. "I'm just sick and tired of this place. There are too many bad memories here so I'm more than ready to leave."

"Um, what exactly do you plan on doing once we get to the chamber?" Amelia asked. Mikey understood Amelia's apprehension toward Nora's intentions.

"I want to shut down that stupid AI," Nora said in a surprisingly dark tone.

"Shut her down?"

"She and the mainframe have corrupted one too many of my friends already."

"Nora, your emotions might be getting in the way of your reasoning," Arin said as he caught up to walk next to Amelia. "I mean, do you even know _how_ you'll shut her down?"

"I-I'll figure it out," Nora said. "How hard can it be?"

"I just think we should come up with a plan B," Arin said. "We don't want to get—"

"I see you," a tiny electronic voice interrupted.

Bullets suddenly started flying toward them from an open-face box made of panels to their right. Before they could step out of sight again, a bullet struck Arin in the arm who cried out in pain and held his arm.

"Ah! Fuck!" he cried out.

"Whoa! Hold on, fellas!" a voice said in a southern accent. It wasn't like Nate's, though. The voice sounded more like a polite cowboy than a southern doctor. "Don't fire! One of them is my friend!"

"Are you still there?" the tiny voice asked.

"Don't try to coax them out and don't you dare shoot them!" the southern accent threatened. "If you shoot them, I'll shoot both of you!" Mikey felt so confused. Were the sentry turrets arguing with each other?

"Shutting down," two tiny voices said.

"Fuuuuuck!" Arin cried. "My fucking arm hurts so fucking much!"

"Calm down, Arin!" Jon said frantically. He seemed to be panicking just as much as Arin was. "You're gonna be okay! J-Just don't panic!" Despite being his enemy, Mikey couldn't help but also panic a little at the sight of blood trickling down from Arin's upper arm. He hoped that Arin wouldn't bleed out.

"I got ya," Nate said calmly as he dug around in his large backpack for his medkit. He gently examined Arin's arm, careful not to move it around too much. "Good news. The bullet only took off top-layer flesh. It didn't do any permanent damage."

"But it hurts so fucking much!" Arin cried. Mikey cringed to see tears streaming down Arin's face. He was surprised by how much he suddenly sympathized with Arin.

"I'll dress this wound and give you a shot of morphine," Nate assured him.

"Nora?" the other southern voice called from the box. "Was that you, Nora?"

"Wait, _Kurt?"_ Nora hesitantly glided forward to look into the box. Her eye figuratively lit up when she spotted a familiar optic. "Oh my god! Kurt! I can't believe it!" She sounded so happy to see whoever it was.

"I can't believe it either, darlin'!" Kurt said. "You're okay! I've been afraid that you were killed by that monster Wheatley!"

"What happened to you?" Nora asked. "How did you get put into a turret?"

"Well, Wheatley ended up catching me, and he tried to stuff me into one of those cube-thingies. He ended up crushing my case in a rage so he just put me into a turret. He never did get around to reprogramming me to fire indiscrim'nately, though. I think he had hoped that the test subject woulda walked in my line of sight and that I woulda been the one to shoot her. Good thing I haven't seen her since she escaped from Wheatley's tests."

"Well, despite you being in this new body, I'm still really glad that you're okay," Nora said. "We need to catch up on things."

"You _know_ this turret, Nora?" Amelia cautiously approached Nora and the odd turret. Mikey followed at what he thought would be a comfortable distance for her. He'd throw himself in front of her to take a bullet if he had to, though.

"Yeah, he used to be an old model of a personality core," Nora explained. Mikey was suddenly very intrigued with this construct. "It's kind of a long story, but he and I basically worked our way up from the deepest layer of Aperture with a German kid."

"You had another human with you?" Amelia asked. "What happened to them?"

"He fell down a bottomless pit," Kurt said. "Poor kid."

"Oh." Amelia appeared to feel awkward about this, and Mikey couldn't blame her.

"We need to take Kurt with us," Nora insisted.

"What? We can't carry him, Nora," Amelia said. "I'm sorry but he's too heavy."

"If I can just get into my original body, I can follow you guys on foot," Kurt said.

"We don't have enough time for that," Amelia said. She seemed to be having a hard time with this decision. "We need to find Toby before it's too late. I'm sorry."

"Who's Toby?" Kurt asked.

"We have time to get your body," Mikey assured the trio talking. "It won't take long to transfer you to a simple personality construct case. The part that will take up the most time will be finding the body." He also secretly just wanted to see what this older model looked like.

"I can try to have it delivered to us," Nora said. "It's in a completely different section of the facility, but I still think I can manage it. Let me try to navigate the system for a minute."

As Nora searched for the location of Kurt's construct model in the system, Amelia decided to sit down with Nate as he treated Arin's wound. Mikey watched from afar and cringed when Nate started to pull the needle through Arin's skin for the stitches.


	36. Chap 36: Panic In the Chamber

Mikey tried his best to distract himself from the impending doom of when they reached GLaDOS' chamber. He took out the camcorder and started filming Kurt as he walked on three spindly but sturdy legs. He was becoming more fascinated with the physical construction of these bots. Kurt scuttled along like a three-legged insect, and Nora had such an intricate gyroscopic design that allowed so much expression through movement. He felt a little guilty that he was sort of looking forward to seeing what GLaDOS looked like. Wheatley had described her as being enormous so she must really be a sight to see.

 _Can't get distracted,_ though, he told himself. _The number one priority is getting both Amelia and Toby out of here alive. And Stevie since he's nice to me._

At one point, they could faintly hear voices ahead of them as they echoed in a large chamber. Mikey recognized Toby's voice talking to a more feminine, robotic voice.

"So what exactly do you want with me?" Toby was asking. "Why did you tell your robot buddies to come for me exclusively?"

"You're the perfect test subject for me," GLaDOS said. "You behave like a human but you can be repaired if you die—I mean, if you break."

"Hey, you said if I _die_ ," Toby said. "You can't just cover that up. And anyway, I sure won't 'behave like a human' if my personality gets destroyed if I die."

"That's why I will download your personality and keep a copy filed away in the system," GLaDOS said. "Then I wouldn't need to worry about you being damaged."

Mikey's stomach churned at these words as the catwalk ended at a wall that was made up of the backside of moveable panels. Nora just stopped and listened in on the conversation for a moment. Panic slowly started to rise in Mikey as he realized that Nora still didn't have any clue how they were going to get Toby out.

"Well, I'm not going to test for you," Toby insisted. "I only came here with your robots to see what you wanted. Now that I know you only want something stupid, I'm leaving again."

"Oh, no you're not." Panels could be heard shifting around in the chamber, spiking Mikey's panic as his breath started to catch in his throat.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" Toby's voice sounded kind of muffled as if he were being contained in something. "Come on! I'm not going to test for you so just let me go!"

The panels in front of the group suddenly shifted to enclose them into the chamber from behind. Nora's management rail was disconnected from the rest behind her so that she had very little room to travel. Near the middle of the room was a box made up of floor tiles that seemed to trap Toby. Three large metal claws quickly descended to snatch away their portal guns. One smaller claw came down and took Mikey's camcorder away. He couldn't care less about the camcorder now, though. He stared at the enormous construct that hung down from the ceiling. She must have weighed at least a few tons! Yet she moved around smoothly to look at the group of humans and Nora.

"Ah, there you are," she said as her yellow optic settled its gaze on the small personality core. "Isn't it funny how you find something you've been looking for once you don't need it anymore?"

Mikey looked to her desperately, but Nora just shook with fright. Mikey filled with dread as he realized that they might not make it out of here alive. He wanted to confess his love for Amelia or give her a hug or at least take her damn hand. But he just stood in one spot as his breathing gradually became more rapid.

GLaDOS suddenly turned to Nate. "Weren't you one of my last test subjects? The trio that I caught the first time you all stupidly came in here?"

Now Mikey looked over at Nate, but the doctor said nothing as he stared up at the machine with piercing blue eyes. Mikey couldn't help feeling impressed with the way that Nate didn't show any fear.

"Have you all suddenly gone mute?" GLaDOS said mockingly. "It seems to be spreading through the air. Well, it doesn't matter if you respond or not. I really only want you all gone so that you will stop bothering me."

"We're not fucking leaving unless Toby comes with us," Arin said defiantly. It seemed that the painkiller had skewed his judgment and he didn't really pay attention to what he was saying. This defiance made Mikey panic a bit more, but he also felt a deep appreciation that Arin was actually concerned for Toby.

"What crude language," GLaDOS said.

"I don't give a shit right now," Arin said, glaring at the large construct. "I got shot in the fucking arm and it hurts like nothing I've ever experienced before."

"Well then, I'll make your deaths as quickly and easily as possible for you."

Arin's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"I can't just let you all leave now," GLaDOS explained. "You might come back in here for another rescue trip and interfere with my experiments. And anyway, I've decided that I want revenge for you coming in here before and taking Rattmann away. I wasn't finished with him. Not after how he helped my best test subject break out of my tests, or what he and his scientist buddies did to Caroline."

"Let me out of here!" Toby called from the large box. Mikey turned his attention to it, desperately wishing he could get his friend out of there somehow. "This is ridiculous! You do know that I would cause just as much trouble as any other rebellious human, right?"

"Not with a few minor tweaks," GLaDOS said. Rage mixed with Mikey's fear at these words. The idea of this sadistic AI messing around with Toby's code—the code that Mikey himself worked on for several years straight—disgusted him. "I can reprogram you to crave testing just as much as Nora's idiotic little boyfriend did when he was in the mainframe."

"How dare you—" Nora started but she was interrupted.

"If you don't fucking let us go right now, I swear I'll rip that stupid smug head right off your enormous body!" Arin yelled.

"Silence!" GLaDOS shouted. "All of you! No one is leaving here alive. I will extinguish each of your insipid lives one by one for my latest experiment. I have been meaning to try my hand at reanimating the dead for testing. And as for you, Nora, I'm sure I could find some—"

A panel above her suddenly fell from the ceiling and a figure dropped down onto her head. Mikey's fear sort of just froze in him as he was shocked to see a young man banging at GLaDOS' head with a large wrench. He tried to smash her optic, but GLaDOS grabbed him with a mechanical claw and held him out away from herself. The young man's brown hair was wild and waved down just past his shoulders. He wore an orange jumpsuit that looked baggy on his scrawny frame. There was a little bit of peach fuzz on his chin, and he glared at the large construct with piercing blue eyes.

"Charlie?" Nora squeaked out.

The young man turned his attention to Nora, then Kurt. A smile spread across his face. "Meine Freunden!" he said excitedly. "You are okay!"

"Well, stick me in a turret!" Kurt exclaimed. "Charlie, you're alive! How is that even possible?!" Mikey was so confused by all of this. Who was this guy? Both Nora and Kurt spoke to him in such a familiar way. What was this guy doing here anyway?

"Enough of this!" GLaDOS shouted. She carelessly tossed Charlie towards the group. Charlie cried out in pain as he landed on his shoulder and rolled for a short distance. "Enough of this pathetic, little reunion. You humans and your constant emotions irritate me to no end. I've had it with all humans."

The floor tiles around them shifted to allow four glass walls to rise up and form a cramped box. Mikey's fear resumed as he started to hyperventilate.

"I've decided that your deaths won't be quick and painless. You'll begin to feel the oxygen in the room become thin. I suggest that when this makes you panic, you should all take several short breaths to speed up the process."

Everyone started to panic and unconsciously breathe more rapidly as the air noticeably became thinner. Mikey seemed to be affected a lot quicker than everyone else as a full-on panic attack set in. He couldn't even have a proper panic attack, though, because soon he could barely take in any oxygen at all. As he fell to his knees, he looked over at Amelia whose face was bright red. He felt like vomiting from the extreme emotions of helplessness and grief that washed over him. Amelia was going to die here. She'd never get a happy ending with _anyone_ now.


	37. Chap 37: Courage

Mikey suddenly gasped a breath of fresh oxygen. He looked around with confusion as he continued to hyperventilate. Everybody else seemed just as confused that they could suddenly breathe more easily. He looked toward the box made of floor tiles and was surprised to see Toby looking around in utter shock. How the hell did he get out of there?

"W-Why can't I move?!" GLaDOS suddenly exclaimed. It was her turn to panic now. "What have you done to me?!"

"What happened?" Natalie asked. "Where did the glass go?"

"How did I get out of that cube?" Toby asked.

"Nevermind that," Amelia said. "Let's just leave." Toby didn't need to be told twice as he hurried to one of the tiled walls of the chamber.

"Stop!" GLaDOS commanded. "You can't just leave me like this! I'm stuck!"

Toby ripped a tile off of the wall and gestured for everyone to go through. Mikey still hadn't fully caught his breath yet, but he did his best to keep up with the rest of the group. Toby seemed to know exactly where he was going as he led the team down hallways. He was sure to keep everyone at a quick pace to ensure that everyone made it out. He even scooped up Kurt and carried him as he ran. Toby was pretty fast, and Charlie was the only one of the humans who could keep up with him. Mikey had to say that he was impressed with Toby's ability to seize leadership when the situation called for it. Amelia didn't seem to mind this as she just tried to keep up along with Mikey.

They came to a large elevator that could fit all of them. Nora detached herself from the management rail so that Charlie could catch her and carry her in. Once the doors were closed, it made a slow ascent.

Toby turned to look at the group. "So," he said, panting. "How is everyone?"

"Exhausted," Natalie said. "Thanks for asking."

"Just tuck yourself into my backpack and I'll carry you," Jon joked. Natalie smiled at this.

Mikey just braced himself against the wall as he took deep, even breaths to calm himself. He looked over at Amelia who also seemed pretty worn out. There was relief evident on her face, though, as a corner of her mouth pulled up slightly in a small smile.

Once the elevator stopped, they happened to end up very close to the hallway that led to the testing tracks. Their luck as almost uncanny to Mikey. He followed the rest of the group through the door to the lobby, but Toby stopped at the door with a puzzled look.

"Wait," he said. "We didn't leave the door open this wide, did we?"

"Who cares?" Arin said, running past him. "Come on! Let's just get out of here."

Arin stopped at the hole leading outside to watch the downpour of rain. Natalie went outside to dance in the rain and was quickly followed by Jon. Mikey felt a little awkward as everyone else spoke with each other and got ready to leave. He looked around the lobby and his gaze stopped at the desk that he'd grown so familiar with the first time. He remembered the metal headband that was in the bottom drawer. What if it actually _was_ something functional and not just scrap metal?

He made his way over to the desk and opened the bottom drawer. The headband was still there, but this time, he noticed there was a scrap of paper lying beneath it. He picked up this paper and skimmed the scribbled handwriting all over it. They were instructions on how to use the device. It was hard to read it all at a glance, but it said something about the multiverse theory. _Does this let you travel to other universes?_ he wondered. He picked up the device and tucked it safely into his backpack along with the instructions.

"Mikey, come on!" Amelia said. "We're going home now."

"I'm coming," Mikey said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. Joy rushed through him at hearing her address him. "We're safe now. Don't worry. We have no rush."

"We still have the Combine to worry about, you know," Amelia said.

As they walked, everybody seemed to enjoy the rain despite getting soaked. Charlie carried Nora who was wrapped up with a canvas tarp to keep her dry. Toby walked along with them and was making light conversation with Nora. She didn't seem to mind making a new friend with the android. Jon and Natalie continued to dance around in the rain with Jon occasionally singing a random song from a musical that Mikey wasn't familiar with.

Mikey continued to walk next to Amelia who looked around at the rain falling through the leaves. Now was his chance to talk to her and be sure that he was on her good side. But what would he say? This was always the problem; he didn't know how to start a conversation with her. He finally decided to just gather up all the courage that he had and just say whatever came to mind. Saying something stupid was better than saying nothing at all at this point.

"So you and Doug are an item now, huh?"

Amelia looked at him a little awkwardly. "Um, yeah," she said.

"It's kind of weird, isn't it?" he continued. "I mean, how old is Doug?"

"I don't know and I don't care," she answered sharply. She looked down in annoyance, and Mikey felt his heart sink a little.

"Sorry, I don't mean to get you upset. I was just curious to see if it really didn't bother you. It's none of my business, but I actually think it's kind of cute. He's a lucky guy." Mikey had no idea why he blurted this last part, but it was too late now as Amelia's expression changed from annoyance to puzzlement.

"Is he?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Mikey went on awkwardly. He didn't know how to fix this so he decided to just say it. "I never thought I'd tell you this, but I…had a pretty big crush on you….like, three years ago."

Amelia looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. Mikey felt his stomach knot. "For real?"

"Yeah." Mikey laughed nervously. "It was just puppy love, though. I'm over it. Anyway, I just want to say that I'm happy for you two. He's a pretty cool guy. Do you think he'd collaborate with me on a coding project or something?"

"Um….Yeah, maybe," Amelia said.

They were quiet for a little while and Mikey panicked on the inside, wondering what had possessed him to run his mouth.

* * *

Later on in the train, Mikey was alone in a compartment with Toby and Stevie. He told them about how he'd confessed his feelings for Amelia but had said that he was over his crush by now.

"And for some reason, I said that they made a cute couple," he concluded. "What is _wrong_ with me?"

"Nothing!" Toby said cheerily. "I'm proud of you, man!"

"Yeah, it was brave of you to confess any amount of your affection toward her," Stevie said with a grin. "I'm glad you were able to talk to her _at all_."

"I don't know," Mikey said, leaning back in his seat. "I just feel stupid. I lied to her about being happy for them. I mean, I'm not as upset as I was earlier, but I still don't like that she's dating anyone else."

"Don't feel stupid," Toby insisted. "She probably really likes that you approve of them. That's more than can be said for Arin."

"Don't drag Arin into it," Stevie said. "He's really not that bad of a guy."

"He is to _me_ ," Mikey mumbled. "Hey, uh, Toby. I'm sorry about being so cold toward you before. You know, when I was just pouting."

"It's cool," Toby said simply. "I know you were just upset. No harm done."

"You really have no hard feelings about it?"

"It's in the past," Toby said. "Seriously, there's no bad blood between us. I don't even _have_ any blood."

Mikey let out a chuckle and Toby smiled.

 **AN: I think this is a good place to stop for a while. I'm having both writer's block and artist's block so I think I need some time to just do whatever. I won't take long with this hiatus. This isn't like** _ **Steven Universe**_ **or** _ **Rick and Morty**_ **. I have some more chapters written but I want to pause this story at a good place, ya know?**


	38. Chap 38: Assisting Amelia

**AN: It's still Saturday so I'm gonna start the posting today. I've got another batch of chapters for y'all.**

As Mikey helped Amelia set up her surprise for Doug in one of the labs, he couldn't help smiling a little. She stood on one of the tables with him to help attach Nora to the management rail.

"Thanks for helping me with this," Amelia said as she tried to hold Nora steady while Mikey focused on lining her up with the track. "I think Arin is still kind of bitter about me, uh, rejecting him.

"It's no problem at all," Mikey insisted. "I like to help in any way I can."

"Um…..How have you been lately?"

Mikey's heartbeat quickened as he tried to tame the joy that threatened to explode inside him. "I've been okay," he lied. "I mean, I've kept busy with developing Toby and getting him into his body."

"I don't know if I said it before but you did a really great job on him," Amelia said. "His personality is so genuine. It's extremely impressive."

He could feel his face turning red and he cursed internally that he couldn't hide this by looking down. "Thanks," he said. "He's been my hobby for quite a while now. He's the result of hard work and no social life." He laughed sheepishly.

Amelia laughed a little, too. "That's more than _I've_ accomplished," she remarked.

"Your situation is entirely different," Mikey said. "You're our leader down here."

"Sometimes, it feels like that doesn't mean anything." All humor had left her tone but Mikey was too nervous to look over at her.

They were finally able to line Nora up with the rail enough for her to attach herself to it. Then they got down from the table to look up at the bot.

"How does it feel?" Mikey asked. "You don't feel like you might disconnect, do you? It doesn't feel crooked or anything?"

"No, it feels alright," Nora said quietly as she moved around a bit. "Thank you for helping me."

"No problem at all, Nora," Amelia said. "We're happy we were able to find you."

Mikey watched Amelia's face for a few moments. Her brow was furrowed like something was wrong. "Uh, Amelia?" When she looked back at him, he had to force himself to continue. "H-How have _you_ been? I mean…..Is everything okay?"

She gave him an unconvincing smile. "Yeah, of course," she said. "I mean, I've been a little bored since I haven't been keeping myself busy like you have."

"No, I mean recently," Mikey said. It was easier to keep talking to her now that he was concerned for her. "Like, is everything okay right now? You seem a little distracted with something."

Her smile faltered for a second but she was able to recover it. "Sorry, I'm just tired from everything that's been going on for the past few days. Everything's been changing so quickly. But don't worry, I'm okay. I…I appreciate your concern, though."

Mikey had to smile back now. "Just…any time you need to talk to someone—well, besides Doug—I'm always around."

"S-So anyway." Amelia looked up at Nora. "Here's how I think the surprise should go down. We'll just flip off the lights before I come back with Doug and Nora will close her eye. Then when Doug comes in, we'll shut the door to make it all dark again and Nora will open her eye. At that point, I'm sure Doug will recognize you." She smiled up at Nora. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a good plan," Nora said.

"Yeah, and I like how you thought about the eye thing," Mikey chimed in.

Amelia smiled nervously at his approval. "Thanks," she said. "I'll go get Doug now. Remember to shut off the light before he gets here."

"I won't forget," Mikey said.

"Okay, I'll be back soon." And with that, Amelia left to retrieve Doug.

There was an awkward silence between the two introverts for a few minutes in which Mikey tried to figure out in his head why Amelia seemed so nervous. Was she uncomfortable around him now that she knew about his feelings for her? _I mean, even if she thinks I'm over her, I guess she might still feel weird about it,_ he thought. _I really hope I didn't screw things up. But she seemed happy to talk to me. What does this mean? I don't know how to decipher any of this._

"Um…"

Nora's sudden voice made Mikey flinch and he looked up at her.

"I-I know it's none of my business," she said quietly, "but it seemed like there was a tension between you and Amelia."

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about," Mikey lied.

"Um…Did you guys used to d-date or something?" Nora asked timidly.

Mikey laughed at this. "No, we've never been romantically involved."

The lids of Nora's eye retracted to express her surprise. "Really? Sorry to be so nosy but, um…..you two kind of seemed to have a history together."

"Yeah, we kind of do," Mikey said, looking away uncomfortably. "It's a long story that I don't want to get into right now."

"Oh. I'm sorry to have brought it up."

"No, don't be," Mikey insisted. "You didn't know."

There was another long awkward silence between the two awkward people until footsteps could be heard approaching. Since it was so late, it had to have been Amelia and Doug heading for the labs. Mikey suddenly remembered that he was supposed to have turned off the lights. Amelia knocked on the door just as he was getting up from his seat.

"One moment!" he called out as he hurried to the light switch by the door. He flipped the switch down as quietly as he could before he opened the door for them. "Come on in."

Doug appeared confused as Amelia led him into the dark room. Mikey closed the door behind them to make it completely dark.

"Why are the lights out?" Doug murmured.

"Go ahead and open your eye," Mikey told Nora.

Nora retracted her optic lids to reveal her glowing purple eye. Mikey waited a moment to build the suspense before turning on the lights again. He was startled as Doug suddenly rushed forward and jumped up toward Nora. She detached herself from the management rail just as he grabbed her. Doug held her close to his chest as he half-laughed, half-sobbed. It would've been a more emotional scene for Mikey if he hadn't been slightly annoyed by how long it had taken them to get Nora onto that rail in the first place.

"Oh my god!" he exclaimed. "Nora, I searched for you for so long! I really did! I tried so hard! I can't believe you're here now!"

"I'm just as happy to see _you_ , Doug!" Nora cried. "GLaDOS said that you had died!"

"No, I'm okay, Nora," Doug said, smiling down at her. "I'm even better now that I know that you're safe."

Mikey's bitterness toward Doug started to fade as he smiled a little. This happy reunion really tugged at his heartstrings. After so much they'd been through together, they're friendship had survived—even after being separated for a few years.

"I'm glad you're safe, too," Nora said. "They said that they're going to make an android body for me like Toby's. Isn't it great?"

Doug smiled more as he wiped his tears away with his sleeve. "Yeah, that's great," he said. "You deserve it, sweetie."

Mikey felt even more touched by this. The way that Doug called her "sweetie" was so paternal. Mikey was almost jealous of this. He'd never had a dad to call him nicknames like "buddy" or "little man"—let alone the feminine nickname "sweetie".

Amelia had never had a dad either. He glanced at her and met her gaze. How long had she been staring at him? She smiled nervously before turning to address her boyfriend. "Doug, we also found another human in Aperture," she said. "And another personality core."

"A human? Like a test subject?" Doug asked.

"Yeah, he was wearing an orange jumpsuit when we found him," Amelia said.

"He's Charlie," Nora said. "Remember that German boy that I told you about?"

"Oh, him?" Doug said. "I thought you said he died. Where is he?"

"In the cafeteria," Amelia said. "He's stuffing his face the same way you did when you first got here."

"Well, why don't we go join him?" Doug asked.

"Okay, but I kind of want Nora to stay in the labs for a while," Amelia said. "Mikey says he wants to check her files to make sure none of them are corrupt."

"It's just a safety precaution," Mikey assured Nora. "We don't want anything to happen to you. You can explore the facility once we get you into your android body."

"Okay," Nora said. "If you think that's for the best."

"I think that's a good idea," Doug said. Mikey appreciated this. Doug must have really missed Nora, but he was okay to part with her again as long as it was for her benefit. "Nora, I'm going to go eat dinner right now. I'll come back to see you tomorrow." He gently set her down on one of the lab tables.

"I'll see you then," Nora said happily.

"Your body is almost done," Mikey said. "Just a day or two and you can try it out. We'll have Toby show you the basic functions."

"Thank you, Mikey," Nora said.

"We better go eat," Amelia said. "I'm starving. We'll see you tomorrow, Nora."

"Bye, Nora," Doug said.

"Bye."

Doug and Amelia left the room, leaving Mikey to feel awkward again. He wished Amelia had stayed back. He was curious about the way she had been looking at him. Nora noticed the exhausted and frustrated look in his eyes.

"Um, you seem upset about something," she said nervously.

Mikey didn't look at her as he answered. "I'm fine. Just tired."

"It's, uh, n-none of my business," Nora said timidly, "but you seem to like Amelia a lot."

Mikey smiled a tiny bit at this. "I can't deny that."

"How long have you two known each other?" Nora asked curiously.

"Pretty much my whole life," Mikey said. "But if you want years, around twenty."

"Oh." Nora didn't seem to know what to say at first. After about ten long seconds, she said, "I'm sorry that she's dating Doug."

Mikey gave her a reassuring look. "Don't be sorry. If she wants to be with him, who am I to get in the way of her happiness? Here, let's check your files now."

 **AN: It's chapters like these that make me remember this bit from "Love As A Construct":**

" _ **Are you ready for me to detach myself?" Nora asked Rattmann. He nodded so she closed her eyes and detached herself from her management rail. She had never been off her rail since they first attached her to it many years ago. When she fell into Rattmann's arms, she trembled. She slowly opened her eye and was surprised at how close the floor was now. She looked up at Rattmann. "Am I too heavy?"**_

 _ **Rattmann shook his head and smiled at her as if she were an angel. If she had a mouth, Nora would have smiled back.**_

 ***sigh* Good times. Things were simpler back then for me.**


	39. Chap 39: Marriage

Mikey continued to browse through Nora's files the next day, and Doug hung around the lab to catch up with Nora. He told her about escaping Aperture and being outside for the first time in years. He described feeling the sun's warmth on his face, and Mikey thought back to how excited _he_ had first been to see the sun again.

"I can't wait to have a human body so that I can feel the sun, too," Nora said.

"Well, that might be a little hard with the Combine soldiers running around up there," Mikey said.

"Did they explain that to you last night when you arrived?" Doug asked.

"They explained it on the train ride back, but I still find it hard to believe," Nora said. "It sounds so outlandish."

"Yeah, none of us wanted to believe it either," Arin said. "But it's a terrible truth." He and Stevie worked on Nora's body from behind a curtain that divided the lab. They didn't want Nora to see it until it was done.

"We can probably sneak up to the surface sometime," Doug said. "I've heard that there's a secret way up there."

"Are we _allowed_ to go up this secret way?" Nora asked.

"No, but don't let that bother you," Doug said. "It'll be fun."

"Where's Amelia today?" Nora asked. "I thought you'd want to spend time with her after being apart."

"I think she's showing your friend around the compound," Doug said. "What was his name? Charlie?"

"Yeah."

"He seems to be happy here."

Mikey admired how Amelia was so eager to welcome a new member to their community. He spaced out a little as he thought about how much he wished he could join her in running the compound. He wanted to help take some of the pressure off of her for him to bear himself. They'd be a perfect couple in helping everyone out and making sure they had an ample supply of food.

"And speaking of perfect couples, what about Amelia?" Mikey caught Nora asking. He snapped out of his daydreaming to listen in—no matter how painful it would be for him. "How did you become interested in each other?"

Doug looked uncomfortable about the question as he cleared his throat to buy himself time. "I, um…..I don't know," he said. "I-I kind of felt fond of her from the moment I met her."

"Can you guys keep it down over there?" Arin grumbled from behind the curtain. "We're doing delicate work here."

"Could I just say something really quick?" Mikey found himself saying. "I mean, it's none of my business, but I just want to say that you and Amelia are a cute couple." _Ugh! Why did I say that?!_ he chastised himself in his head.

Doug looked away awkwardly. "Thanks," he said.

"Do you plan on marrying her?"

Doug looked up at Mikey. "What?" he asked. _Mikey_ was even more surprised, though, by the idiotic question leaving his own mouth. He decided that it was too late to back out of it now.

"I said do you plan on marrying Amelia? We have a priest here for people who have somehow kept their faith. He could legally marry you guys. Not sure if it really matters anymore, but I thought I'd let you know that it's an option."

"I-I haven't even thought about it," Doug said. "Uh, thanks, though."

Mikey couldn't help but feel a little smug about this. Doug wasn't committed enough to want to marry Amelia. Mikey would marry her in a heartbeat so he felt a tiny bit more confident about his chances with her.

Still, he couldn't believe that he had brought up marriage at all. And why did he say that Doug and Amelia made a cute couple? What the hell was wrong with him?


	40. Chap 40:Doug's Inquiry

Mikey brooded as he ate in the cafeteria with the guys. He felt tense as he sat next to Doug. Why had he said those things to Doug?

 _What the hell was I thinking?!_ he berated himself. _I don't want them to get married! Am I really this much of a pushover that I'll make myself uncomfortable to get someone else to like me?!_

"How are Nora's files looking?" Stevie suddenly asked him.

"What?" Mikey said as he looked up. "Uh, good. Everything seems to be in place and operating just fine."

"You don't think there will be any complications with getting her into the new body?" Arin asked.

"No," Mikey said a bit more coldly. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Arin's attitude. "Like I said, everything is fine. She's got the same sort of scripting as Wheatley so why would there be any problems?"

"I'm just making sure," Arin said. "Toby doesn't seem like the perfect AI because of his big ego and bad ideas. I just want to make sure that you're looking through Nora's files more carefully."

Mikey couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had Arin just told him upfront that he was a bad coder? After creating an AI with an organic personality, Arin had the gull to say that _Mikey_ was bad at coding? Toby was more than Arin had _ever_ coded!

Before Mikey could come up with a retort, though, he was startled as Doug flinched violently next to him. Everyone turned to look at him and it was clear that he was embarrassed by this.

"Are you okay, Doug?" Mikey asked.

"Y-Yeah," Doug said. "I'm okay. Something just startled me." Now that Mikey was sitting next to him, he could see shadows under Doug's eyes.

"You look really tired," Mikey pointed out. "Maybe you should go take a nap or something."

"No, I'm fine," Doug said. "I want to go back to the lab with you guys."

The conversation about the project continued. Mikey wanted to give his suggestions about what they could do differently with Nora's body, but Arin was quick to dismiss anything he said. Stevie didn't really say much at all in response. He looked like he felt awkward about the situation, but Mikey just wished that Stevie would back him up. He felt so alone at the table.

* * *

Doug stayed back in the cafeteria when Arin and Stevie got up to leave. Mikey decided to wait for Doug to finish eating.

"You don't need to wait for me," Doug mumbled after Arin and Stevie had left.

"I'll take any time away from Arin that I can get," Mikey said.

"Yeah….You guys don't really seem to like each other," Doug pointed out.

"We don't," Mikey confirmed. "We have a mutual understanding about it."

"Oh."

"But he did help put Toby into an android body so I can't hate him _too_ much," Mikey said.

"Yeah, Toby is really something," Doug said. "You know, Nora and Wheatley were originally people whose minds got dumped into a computer. Their personalities filled out an AI template. But I'm pretty impressed with how well Toby has been created from scratch."

Mikey felt his face turning red and he had to look away. "Well, I started out with an AI template from Black Mesa," he confessed.

"That doesn't make it any less remarkable," Doug said.

Mikey mumbled incoherently in embarrassment, not really knowing what to say. He wasn't very good at receiving compliments since they were so rare for him.

"So, um…." Doug trailed off as he seemed to struggle with wanting to say something.

"What's up?" Mikey coaxed.

"Um, Amelia has sort hinted at….you two being friends or something in the past."

Mikey's heart started to pound anxiously. Why would Amelia be talking to Doug about him? What else had she said? Did she speak well of him? Why was Doug bringing it up? "O-Oh?" he finally said.

"I just….I was wondering why you stopped being friends," Doug mumbled.

Mikey's heart sank a little. "It's kind of a long story," he said. "I don't like to think about it. But long story short, she was upset about her mom not making it down here, and I guess I said the wrong thing because she yelled at me and we stopped talking."

"Really?" Doug seemed surprised by this and Mikey had no idea why. "She sort of implied that you'd been hanging out or something a few years ago."

"Yeah, we tried hanging out again but….I guess it had been too long or something because we drifted apart again." Mikey stared down as he picked at a hangnail. It churned his stomach to be talking to Doug about this.

"Um, sorry for bringing it up," Doug said. "I was just curious, but it really isn't any of my business."

Mikey finally looked at Doug again and forced a smile. "I'm glad that Amelia has someone like you," he said. He really meant it, too. "I'm glad that she didn't end up with Arin after all."

Doug laughed a little. "Yeah, I think that's why he doesn't like me," he said.

"Oh well," Mikey said with a shrug. "We don't need Arin's approval for anything." It felt good to smile with Doug—even if he had to force his smile. It almost felt like having a friend that he hadn't created himself.


	41. Chap 41: The End of a Long Day

After what felt like a painfully long day, Mikey finally got back to his apartment. He had planned to lounge around with his Gameboy and talk with Toby for the rest of the evening. However, when he walked into his apartment, he found that Toby was sitting on the loveseat with Wheatley and trying to show him how Mikey's Gameboy worked.

"You haven't erased my save file, have you?" Mikey asked as he slipped his shoes off.

"No, I'm just showing Wheatley how the game plays," Toby said. "I've been messing around with it myself today."

"How was your day, Mikey?" Wheatley suddenly asked. "Are you currently working on any new artificial intelligence programs?"

"No, I've been in the labs with Arin, Stevie, and Doug," Mikey said. He went to his kitchen to grab a can of soda before returning to the living room so that he could sit in his recliner. "What about you? What did you do today?"

"I spent my day with Amelia," Wheatley said. "And that German boy that you found in Aperture. Charlie, I think his name is. We went swimming and I saw a child for the first time that I can remember. He was Nate's son."

"Oh, uh, Warwick," Mikey said, vaguely recalling Amelia's interactions with the kid. "Yeah, Nate seems like a nice dad."

"Makes me a little jealous that I don't have a dad of my own," Toby said. "You don't count, Mikey."

"That's fine with me," Mikey said. "I don't wanna think of you as my son."

"I think it's so interesting that you get to hang out with your creator, Toby," Wheatley said. "Whoever created me in Aperture didn't really want much to do with _any_ of the cores. It's rather disappointing."

"Well, I never knew my dad if it makes you feel any better," Mikey said.

"I don't understand how a father can just bugger off after helping to create a child," Wheatley said. "It makes no sense. Wouldn't a parent want to know their child? I thought you humans were supposed to be proud of being parents. There are so many books and articles on the subject to help do it correctly. You'd think that _someone_ would be reading those books—"

"Geez, Wheatley, can I get a chance to respond?" Mikey practically snapped. He blushed about it as Wheatley stared at him for a few moments. Toby looked at Mikey with concern. Was the whole Amelia-Doug thing really getting to him right now?

"Oh, er, sorry," the British bot said. "Go ahead."

"I-I just wanted to point out that my mom _did_ raise me," Mikey said. "So don't go generalizing all parents. And sometimes, the dad just doesn't want to raise their kid because they're not ready. To be honest, I don't even care. It's not like I know what I'm missing out on without a dad."

Wheatley waited a moment before responding. "You really don't care about not having a father?" he asked. "It really doesn't bother you?"

"No, it doesn't," Mikey said. "Why dwell on what I don't have?" Immediately after saying this, he realized how much of a hypocrite he must have sounded like to Toby. "I mean, I never had a dad so why worry about never meeting someone I know nothing about?"

"Hey, let's talk about something happier," Toby said. "This conversation is bumming me out."

"I agree," Wheatley said. "Let's talk about…..How about Amelia?"

Mikey groaned at this.

"What?" Wheatley asked. "You don't like Amelia?"

"No, he—" Toby stopped himself from blurting out Mikey's secret again.

"He what?" Wheatley asked, turning to Toby. "Come on, tell me." He turned back toward Mikey. "Why would you not want to talk about Amelia?"

"Why do you _want_ to so badly?" Mikey snapped. "What would we talk about? How she's a great leader? How supportive she's been of every new person that has joined us down here? How she's so sweet to people who deserve it? How about how damn pretty she is when she wears her hair down? Or how cute her smile is?"

"I-I have _no idea_ what you're g-going on about," Wheatley stammered. "At all. Are you going m-mad or something? You look angry with me."

"I'm not angry, I'm frustrated!" Mikey exclaimed. "I'm so frustrated with _everything_ right now! With Amelia, with Doug, with Arin, even with _you_ , Wheatley! I just…." He paused to try to compose himself. "I just want to go to bed." He stood up from his chair, leaving his unopened can of soda on the side table. He started to head for his bedroom.

"Mikey, wait," Toby called. Mikey reluctantly turned back and looked at Toby who seemed desperate. "Come on, don't go to bed yet," Toby continued. "Please. We don't have to talk about Amelia or Doug or Arin or anything else that's been frustrating you."

"No, I just want to go to bed and be alone right now," Mikey insisted. "I appreciate you wanting to help but to be honest, I don't really want anyone's help right now."

"Okay…" Toby looked very disappointed as Mikey turned back around to head for his bedroom.

"What's his problem?" Wheatley asked. "He absolutely flew off the handle. I still have no idea what he was talking about."

"Let's just leave the apartment right now," Toby suggested glumly. "How about we go to your place to see Missy?"

* * *

Mikey couldn't just lie in his bed. He tried to go to sleep, but he just spent twenty minutes brooding and staring at the wall. He stood and paced around his room a little to get the restlessness out of his system. He ended up wandering over to his dresser to take out his photo of himself with Amelia when they were kids. Back when everything was so simple. He could have a crush on her and not care whether she knew it or not. As long as he got to play games with her, he was content back then.

He suddenly thought back to his interaction with Amelia the previous night. She had acted so awkward around him. Was it really because she was uncomfortable with him now that she knew that he'd had a crush on her?

"It's not like she knows that I still do," he muttered to himself. "I just don't get it. And I don't know how to go about asking her about it either. It's weird to just go up to someone and ask them if you make them uncomfortable."

He continued to pace around for a little bit longer before deciding to make himself some herbal tea to help himself sleep. He didn't want to have to think about any of this. He just wanted a blank mind for a while.


	42. Chap 42: The Device

Mikey hadn't gotten much sleep that night. He woke up in the early hours of the morning to find that Toby was still gone. Maybe he'd decided to stay at Arin's place with Wheatley for the night.

"At least Toby has friends," Mikey muttered to himself. "That's gotta count for something if I can create an AI that's so outgoing."

He shuffled back to his room and stretched his arms above his head. Maybe he could try to get in a little more sleep. He was about to go back to bed, but his eyes fell on his backpack that was leaning against his dresser. He suddenly remembered the metal headband that he had grabbed from the desk in Aperture.

Curious, he went over and opened the backpack. The device was sitting on top of everything else with the scrap of paper that went with it. He read the scribblings on the paper and was intrigued. This device supposedly allowed the wearer to observe one's like life in an alternate reality.

 _I don't think I can resist the temptation,_ Mikey thought. _I need to know that things can get better. Maybe I could learn something from this. Worst case scenario, I find a reality where things are a lot worse, but then I can at least feel better about my own reality._

He turned the device over in his hands and examined it from all sides. He began to worry as he thought about actually putting it on his head. _What if this thing is really dangerous?_ he thought. _I mean, I don't know how this works._ _The process could turn out to be really painful. Is that a risk I'm willing to take?_ He eventually decided that yes, he _was_ willing to take the risk. Something needed to change in his life because the way it was currently going wasn't making him happy.

* * *

After grabbing a camera from the tech department, he locked himself in one of the unused robotics labs to set up his stuff. He'd had to tell the guy in the tech department that he needed the camera to document an experiment. The guy didn't ask for any clarification as he signed out the camera for Mikey to loan. The main reason he wanted to record the experiment, though, was in case it all went horribly wrong. Then at least everyone would know what happened to him.

Mikey had also decided to dress up just a little with a button-down shirt. He figured that if he was going to film the experiment, he may as well look a bit professional. Once he had the camera set up on one of the lab tables, though, he looked down at himself and wondered if maybe he was dressed too formally. He decided to unbutton his cuffs and roll up the sleeves. Then at least he could be a bit more comfortable.

His stomach tied itself into knots as he read over the instructions for the device. This metal headband could change his life forever or possibly kill him. The latter made him hesitant to even turn on the camcorder. In the end, he convinced himself that he needed to do this. He booted up the camcorder and adjusted the frame to where he wanted it. He smiled a little at how cool the scene actually kind of looked through the camcorder. Then he realized that he'd accidentally hit record so he quickly stepped back into place.

"Hello," he started. "My name is Michael Kelly and I am a proud programmer. However, this video isn't about coding or anything like that. Recently, I was part of an expedition to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. We went in there to find an artificial intelligent construct. During our first expedition, I found this odd device in the bottom drawer of a secretarial desk in the lobby. On our way out during the second expedition, I decided to grab it and figure out what it was."

He reached over to a lab table out of frame to grab the device and showed it off to the camera. "I also have these notes that were found with the device," Mikey continued. "They were hastily hand-written, but what it basically it says is that this is used to look into other universes. It also vaguely summarizes the multiverse theory. The multiverse theory suggests that there are universes parallel to ours. If that's true, then this device should be able to prove it."

His hands trembled slightly as he set the headband around the back of his head from temple to temple. He adjusted it a little, feeling uncomfortable with how snug it was. "I hope to gain wisdom out of this experience so I can figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life. If I can't make an artificial intelligence that's worth a damn to anyone but me, maybe I need to find a new passion." He paused to sigh as his heart drummed faster with anticipation and anxiety. "If this thing doesn't work and I end up brain-dead, I'm truly sorry."

He bent down until he was eye-level with the camera so he could look directly into the lens. His heart was pounding against his ribcage now. "Amelia….I want you to know that…..I lied when I said it was puppy love. I'm not over it. I'm still in love with you." He looked down and chuckled at himself. He couldn't believe how nervous this made him. She was nowhere close enough to be able to hear him. "God, I hope nothing happens now. I sure don't want you to see this video."

He stood up straight again and raised his hand toward his right temple. His finger hovered just over the activation button. "Here goes nothing," he said. He paused for a moment to dwell on how cheesy that sounded. "Wait, that's too cliché," he muttered to himself. "Whatever. Let's just do this."

He had to press down on the button harder than he had expected. Once the device was activated, he immediately screamed in pain. It felt like his brain was being scrambled inside with skull with a red-hot fork. The electricity burned every part of him and made his nerves twitch rapidly as he fell to the floor.

It wasn't long before there was an urgent knocking at the door. Mikey screamed at whoever it was to go away. He didn't know why but he was suddenly filled with rage. Stevie called to him from the other side of the locked door, asking Mikey what had happened.

"Why do you care?!" Mikey snapped. He thought back to the previous day, and how Stevie hadn't stood up for him once when Arin was shooting down any of Mikey's suggestions. "Go work on your robotics! Why don't you fix Toby's programming while you're at it! You all think I did such a terrible job!"

The rage only seemed to make his head hurt even more. He writhed in agony and continued to scream as he finally blacked out.

 **AN: I've been dreading these upcoming chapters for a while but to be honest, they're the reason I even decided to write this story. I think my brain just likes to torture my characters. But don't worry. Mikey doesn't suffer for too long.**

 **To my character Mikey, I'm sorry for what I'm putting you through, but at least you're okay in the story "Frowns".**

 **Also, I'm gonna take break to write the next few chapters. I've been flipflopping between two different versions of the same chapter. And I thought this would be a great cliffhanger chapter.**

 **Thanks for reading! I'll work extra hard on these next chapters.**


	43. Chap 43: Nightmares (Mikey Edition)

Mikey woke up to the sound of knocking. He could feel himself slowly waking up, yet somehow, he still felt quite groggy. It felt as though he were falling back asleep. He didn't, though. He felt himself slowly sit up from his loveseat, but he hadn't chosen to do this. His body felt like it was moving on its own. No, wait. He _was_ controlling it. Sort of. He knew that he was himself yet not. That drifting-off feeling intensified.

There was another series of knocks on the door. His body stood from the loveseat and shuffled over to answer. He felt like he was drowning in himself. The only comfort that he had right now was knowing he was in his own apartment. Or _was_ it his? It could've belonged to _another_ him. Was that the same thing?

When he got to the door, he swung it open. He was pulled out a bit from the drowning as he recognized Amelia. She stood in the hall with a fluffy gray sweater and jeans. Her hair was up in that bun but she didn't look like she was trying to appear so professional anymore.

"Amelia!" He felt her name leave his lips without his volition. This was okay with him, though. Her name always felt wonderful to say. "What are you doing here? I mean, uh, what are you doing here so early in the morning?" He suddenly realized that he was still in his sweatpants and he felt a bit self-conscious.

"Hey, Mikey," Amelia said shyly. "I-I wanted to run an idea by you."

"Really? Oh! Where are my manners? Please, come in." He moved aside so that she could enter his apartment. He immediately felt embarrassed, though, when she saw the mess in his living room. There were papers, folders, and dishes spread across the coffee table and random sections of the floor. This was completely natural for the true Mikey. "Sorry about the mess," he said. "I had no idea that you were coming over. It's nice to see you, by the way." He could feel this other him become flustered as he realized he was nervously babbling a bit. There was nothing he could do about it, though. It seemed that he was only a spectator in his own body.

"It's nice to see you, too, Mikey," Amelia said, smiling shyly.

 _Am I dreaming this?_ he thought. _Is this only a manifestation of the thing I want most? Or did the device work and I'm in another reality?_

"Here, have a seat," the other him said. He moved a few papers away so that she could sit down on his loveseat. He sat down with her and folded his hands in his lap. The other him tried to stay calm but he couldn't stop bouncing his knee nervously. The true him felt like smacking his palm against his forehead in embarrassment, and he wished he could take control to calm himself down. "So what did you want to talk about? Can I get you anything first?"

Before she could answer, Mikey was wrenched out of this reality and thrown into another. He sat in a hospital room next to a bed. This version of him was staring anxiously at a young woman in the bed. He had kidnapped her, and fled with her to a different world. He was from a place with magic but was now in a world much like the one he actually lived in. But this him wasn't human. He wore a human disguise, but he knew that he was actually some kind of anthropomorphic canine. This human disguise was so uncomfortable.

With a sigh, this dog-him leaned against the bed and rested his chin in his hands as he continued to watch this woman, hoping she'd wake up soon. The woman had patches of pale skin all over her naturally chocolatey tone, and she had frizzy brown hair that partially covered her face when viewed from the side. The true him didn't recognize her at all. However, he felt a strong affection towards her. He almost became lost in this feeling as he sank into this mind.

 _No!_ he thought. _No! I love Amelia! I don't know who this woman is!_

He was thrown into a different world but this wasn't any better. He felt as though he was inside the mind of another him who was inside the mind of a monster. It was the mind of a behemoth that moved through water. There was so much going on around him. Images of scientists flashed by as his mind interlocked itself with the mind of the monster. There was a flash of other monsters floating around this one as they all moved toward an interdimensional portal. It all felt like a painful fever dream. The most insane part about it was that this version of him had _wanted_ this. He had intentionally synced his mind with that of a monster's.

 _Kind of like how stupid I was to put on this Aperture device!_ he yelled at himself. _What's wrong with me?! Why do I make such idiotic decisions?!_

He was sucked out of this as the synchronization ended and he was in a totally different situation. He was kneeling on a stage in a ridiculous yellow tuxedo. There were a few dozen people watching as he proposed to a woman with short blonde hair. He felt an obsession towards her but she appeared to be repulsed with him.

"Really, Charlie? Will I marry you?" she said with disgust. "No, no, I will not. I will never marry you."

"Okay, so wait," this version of him said (who was apparently named Charlie). "I'm sorry, I want to get this clear. You are saying no?"

"Oh, I am definitely, _definitely_ saying no," the woman said.

Mikey could feel Charlie's heart sink at her words, but he knew this wasn't the end. He'd never give up on her. "Well, I didn't ever sign anything, so I'll see you tomorrow?" he said with a shrug.

Mikey felt pretty bad for Charlie as this woman sighed with irritation and turned away from him. There was an unhealthy obsession with this woman that was hard-wired into Charlie, making it so that he could never move on.

He was a little grateful as he was pulled out from this. Now he was in a cozy apartment and sitting at a desktop computer. He turned around in his computer chair to give his eyes a break from staring at the screen. The true-him was confused when he saw Nora and Kurt lounging in the same room. Nora was in a little cart that Kurt seemed to pull around. Then he realized that in this universe, Kurt no longer inhabited this body. Instead, it was Toby—who seemed pleased to have Nora's company.

His attention turned to someone sitting in a chair by the window of the room. It was Amelia but her hair wasn't tied up. He felt like sighing as he admired her gorgeous, wavy hair. She looked so relaxed with a sketchbook in her lap as she gazed out the window. Then she suddenly looked at him and smiled.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Not much," he said, returning her smile. "I was just thinking about how cute you are."

"Pfft," she replied. " _You're_ the cute one in the relationship."

Mikey's heart soared at this. _Relationship? Me with her? Really?!_

"How's the little one doing?" this Mikey asked.

Amelia reached down to place her hand on her lower abdomen. He hadn't even noticed that her belly was slightly distended. "They're doing alright," she said. "I just wish we could know the gender now. I've been thinking of names for either gender."

 _A baby, too?! Oh god, please just let me stay here! Please!_

But of course, this didn't last. He was taken to a universe where he was in agony. His lungs hurt with every breath as he stared up at a night sky. He appeared to be lying on his back in a cold forest of dead trees. He felt like he was sinking again in a lucid nightmare.

Something suddenly leaped from tree to tree high above him in the branches. He gasped sharply—causing a new wave of pain to erupt in his chest— when it looked down to stare at him. Milky-white eyes reflected the moonlight and made them appear as though they were glowing. The creature's silhouette looked humanoid but with very long, almost sticklike limbs. A long, pointed beak protruded from its face and glistened with fresh blood. _His_ blood.

Mikey desperately wanted to escape. He wanted this version of himself to get up and try to get as far away from this thing as possible. This dying version of him, though, just coughed a little. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as a result. He accepted his fate. He knew he couldn't stop this thing. The true Mikey sank into the consciousness of this Mikey. He hurt all over. Now _he_ wanted to give up, too.

The monster opened its beak to let out an ear-piercing shriek before dropping down from the branch. It landed hard on his abdomen, making him cough more and wheeze. The creature was quite light but its clawed feet dug into his sides as it stared down intently at him, tilting its head to the side slightly in a mocking manner.

"J-Just finish this," he found himself wheezing. Tears started to form in his eyes from the pain. "Please. Have mercy…"

The beak opened wide and rushed at his face, but he was transported to a different place. He was hurrying through a hallway in Aperture. He didn't feel in danger. He just wanted to get to Amelia quickly. He found her in a cafeteria, eating alone at a table near the others who'd gone on the last expedition. Toby wasn't here, though. In fact, looking through the mind of this version of him, he saw that Toby didn't even have an android body yet. He was still stuck inside Mikey's computer.

Mikey sat down next to Amelia. "There's something I need to tell you," he said quietly. "You're not going to believe me."

"What is it?" Amelia asked with concern. "Do we need to worry about Doug?"

 _Worry about Doug?_ the true Mikey thought. _Is she afraid of him here? Is he actually dangerous here?_

"No, it's not that," the other Mikey said. "He let me check out the system's files and I found his memories dumped into a folder." The true Mikey felt so lost. What the hell was going on? Why did Doug have access to Aperture's main system? Why were his memories in a folder? "I was quickly browsing his memories without him knowing, and I found something you're not going to believe."

"What is it?" Amelia asked, curiosity gripping her. "Come on! Spit it out!"

"I…Well, _he_ saw your mom."

Amelia's excitement fell into disappointment. "Well, yeah. Probably," she said. "She used to visit Aperture a lot while Black Mesa tried to make peace with them."

"No, he saw her _recently_ ," Mikey explained. "Like, _really_ recently. Just a few days ago on the street."

Amelia stared at him blankly for a long, painful moment before asking, "Mikey, what the hell are you talking about? My mom is dead. It had to have been someone else."

"No, he spoke to her!" Mikey insisted. "She told him her name was Leah Oates!"

Amelia suddenly glared at him as tears filled her eyes. "Is this some dumb way of trying to cheer me up?" she asked in a hard tone. "It's just mean, Mikey. Why would you try to give up my hopes like that?"

"What?" he asked, feeling his heart starting to break. It felt as though he was losing her all over again like when they were kids. "Why would I lie about something like this just to make you feel better?" he asked. "I swear I wouldn't do that!"

"Grant told me that she died while trying to get people down to the compound," Amelia said. "Why would Grant lie about something like that? He was one of her closest friends and he was torn up about it. He wasn't lying."

"Maybe Grant thought she was dead, but I know what I saw!" Mikey said desperately. The hateful look that she gave him was really beginning to terrify him.

"Just stop!" Amelia demanded. "You're being stupid! She's dead! Saying she's alive for the sake of making me feel better is a shitty idea! Just leave me alone!"

She quickly stood up and hurried out of the cafeteria. Arin shot a dirty look at Mikey from another table before getting up to go comfort Amelia. Mikey's eyes filled with tears as his chest hurt. He was able to stave off a panic attack, but a lump formed in his throat. He buried his face in his arms on the table as he tried to swallow down the sob that threatened to escape his throat.

He was taken from Aperture and found himself standing in someone's bedroom. There was a middle-aged couple sleeping in a bed, completely unaware of his presence. He quickly became alarmed when he noticed that he didn't have much of a physical body. He was a shadowy, humanoid mass. He still had legs but instead of arms, there were hundreds of ropy tendrils that fell down from his shoulders. Each tendril flowed around him like strands of long hair submerged in water.

As he stared at this couple, he felt ill-intentions in the mind of this shadowy him. This strange creature took slow, deliberate steps towards the bed. Mikey knew what this creature had in mind, and he tried his best to pull it away from the couple. It was no use, though. He had no power as this monster reached the couple's bed.

Suddenly, its tendrils whipped out and snapped at the face of the man who was closest to him. The man's face was sliced open by the tendrils, and he was jarred awake by the pain. He screamed as his hands flew up to his face. Blood quickly covered his hands and he clutched his face in agony. The woman woke up from all of the commotion and she cried out from the sight of her husband bleeding. She reached over, hoping to apply pressure to his wounds, but she reeled back when she saw Mikey standing next to the bed in the dark.

 _Run!_ he cried out in this monster's mind. _Please! Run before you're hurt, too! Stop it, you disgusting abomination! Leave these people alone!_

The tendrils whipped out and struck the woman's face. Her wounds were a lot worse, but before Mikey could actually see the damage he'd caused, he was taken away once again. Now he was in a vast wasteland where broken down vehicles sat useless on a highway. They looked like they'd all been heading away from a large city in the distance. Mikey stood on top of a semi-truck and scanned the abandoned vehicles for any life. On the ground standing between cars were two massive, canine creatures. They were like horse-sized wolves with thorns for fur and pig-like snouts. Searching the mind of this version of himself, Mikey was disgusted to learn that these things belonged to him. He commanded them to attack and kill.

Suddenly, a person peeked out over the hood of the car. They spotted Mikey and ducked down again.

"Go," Mikey felt himself mutter.

The wolf-monsters dashed forward, weaving between the vehicles with ease despite their size. The man hiding stood up and started running away from them, but the monsters easily caught up. One of them sunk its teeth into his shoulder, making the man scream in both pain and terror. As the other one caught up, it also sunk its teeth into him along with its comrade. Mikey was forced to listen to the man's feral cries as the monsters tore into him.

 _What's wrong with you?!_ Mikey screamed at this sadistic version of himself. _Why are you doing this?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!_ He started to cry but no one else could hear him. _Please make this stop! I don't want to see these other worlds anymore!_

Suddenly, he was crouching down in front of a beautiful patch of purple lilies that seemed to grow out of the corner in a laundry room. Their leaves were a vibrant green and glimmered slightly. He found that it was odd for these flowers to be growing here because there was no dirt to sustain them.

A quarter was laying just in front of these flowers. Mikey didn't know why but he needed this quarter. Possibly for the washing machine? Very, very carefully, he reached out to grab the quarter. He was almost touching it with his fingers when vines suddenly flew out from the flowers. They wrapped around his wrist and grew up his arm toward his face. He pulled at the vines and tried to rip them from his arm. He attempted to stand up but the vines reached up and wrapped around his neck to pull him back down like a leash. He knew what this plant was trying to do. It was trying to take over his physical form. It would erase his mind to create a new one.

"No!" he cried out, but the vines quickly covered his face and muffled his screams. The sparkling from the magic blinded him with white which slowly faded to black as the plant engulfed him. This was it. This would be the end of him. He could already feel himself—the him in this universe and the true him—slipping away.

 _No,_ the other him weakly thought. It was hard to form words as they both were losing consciousness. _No. Amelia. Breakfast. Need. To. Talk. To. Amelia. Need. Tell. Her…Love….Her….._

Mikey was just conscious enough to be amused by Amelia making yet another appearance in one of his realities. A surge of energy burst from his mind like an electrical charge before he finally blacked out again.

 **AN: Some of these scenes are from other stories I've written (including my other fanfiction called "Frowns"). One is from "Pacific Rim", one is from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and some of them I made up just for this.**


	44. Chap 44: Mikey's Mistake

**AN: Here we go. Reader's discretion is advised. This gets a little dark.**

Mikey faded back into the labs of the compound as somebody knocked on the locked door. It wasn't quite as urgent as Stevie's had been. As he tried to focus, his head throbbed with the worst migraine he'd ever felt. Waves of nausea washed over him as he sat up.

"Mikey? Are you okay?"

Mikey immediately perked up at the voice. "A-Amelia?" he called back. His voice was shaking as he hoped that he was back in his own reality now. He couldn't even tell anymore if he was in control of himself. He clumsily stood and hurried to the door. He ran right into it, slamming his shoulder against it to take the impact instead of his face. "Amelia, you can come in but Stevie can't!"

There was a pause on the other side before she answered. "Okay, Mikey. Let me in. I'll come alone."

"N-No weapons?" he practically whimpered as the negative possibilities suddenly started to churn through his head. What if Stevie had told her that Mikey was dangerous and they were both here to ambush him?

"Of course not," Amelia said with surprise obvious in her tone.

Before she could say anything else, Mikey quickly unlocked the door, reached out, and pulled her through. He pushed her farther into the room before he locked the door again. He was finally alone with her. This was what he'd been waiting years for. He started to giggle gleefully as he turned to face her. There she was. Just as beautiful as ever. Her hair freely fell around her shoulders, no longer restricted to being tied up in a bun. She looked adorable in what seemed to be her pajamas and a pair of slippers. He could feel his face twitching as his lips stretched into a painfully wide smile. How could he _not_ smile now that the love of his life was locked in a room with him?

"Well, if it isn't Chief Oates," he said. He tried to use a playful tone, but he didn't catch the hint of malice and mockery that slipped in. "Amelia—Grace—Oates. So brave to come in here alone." He couldn't banish the paranoia that she was there to ambush him. His face twitched as his smile tried to widen even more. "Are you in your jammies? Did you leave your apartment wearing slippers? Were you in _that_ big of a hurry?" Butterflies—no, they felt more like bees—flurried in his stomach at the thought of her urgently coming to his aid.

Amelia looked at him with troubled eyes. Was she actually worried about him? Did she still care for him this much? "Mikey…..Um, how are you?"

"Fantastic!" Mikey exclaimed happily. "But my head kinda hurts a lot…" The smile slipped from his face as he rubbed his palm against his forehead in a futile attempt to soothe his headache.

"Mikey, what is that on your head?"

"What, this thing?" he asked, looking up at Amelia as he pointed to the metal band on his head. He let out a shrill laugh, happy to have any topic to hold a conversation with her. "It's just something that I found in the lobby of Aperture. You remember, right? I was by the desk. It's supposed to let me see things."

"W-What things?"

"Why, things from different universes, my dear Amelia!" he said. He thought back to the image of Amelia sitting next to the window in that alternate reality, and he laughed so hard with glee that he started coughing.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked, anxiety evident in her eyes as they almost seemed to water.

"Of course!" Mikey exclaimed. "I'm fantastic! But my head kinda hurts a lot…" The smile slipped from his face once again as he rubbed his palm against his forehead in a futile attempt to soothe his headache.

"You already said that," Amelia pointed out.

"Did I?" Mikey asked, looking up in confusion. He honestly couldn't remember having said that. When his eyes focused on her, he felt a corner of his mouth draw up in a half smile. The look of concern for him on her face gave him an almost euphoric high. "So sweet of you to come here," he said quietly. "So _helpful_." He pronounced this word slowly and with such purpose that he noticed Amelia's expression start to change. He didn't like this expression and his smile faded into a slight scowl. He took slow steps toward her, shaking his fist at his side slightly to help emphasis his next words. She seemed to step backwards out of fear of what he might do once he reached her. "Always so damn _helpful_ and _considerate_. It's so easy to see why Arin fell for you. So beautiful and strong…But you wanna know what I think?" He stopped walking once he'd backed her up against one of the lab tables. His heart pounded in his chest at how close he was to her now—a few mere inches away. She was staring into his eyes fearfully but all he could see was how beautiful her dark eyes were. "I think he only likes you for your power. You're like our queen here. Queen of the mole people! But I always liked you for _you_." He smiled again but it felt a lot softer on his face than before. Again, he thought about that alternate reality with her where they were expecting a child together. He placed his hands on her hips as he vaguely imagined the process of getting to that point. He stepped just a little closer until their bodies were touching, and he caught a whiff of her delicious scent. "Even before this damn alien invasion. I always looked forward to seeing you when our parents would visit each other. You were always so cute with the way that you would pretend that you were a scientist like your mother. Remember? I would pretend to be your loyal robot bodyguard and we'd fight imaginary monsters. Remember? Do you remember?" He giggled a little at the memories of their childhood together.

"Mikey," Amelia said softly. He could see in her eyes that she did remember. And she seemed to think fondly of these memories. She reached her hand up and placed it upon his cheek. His heart leapt in his chest as he gently pressed his face against her hand. She felt so soft that his eyes began to water from the ecstasy that the sensation brought him.

"Oh my god," he whimpered in a trembling voice. He placed his hand over hers, bringing on another wave of ecstasy. "Y-Your touch is even sweeter than I ever could have imagined. I've been your loyal dog for so long." Tears broke free from his eyes and rolled down his cheek as his heart began to beat faster. His legs felt too weak and he had to drop down to sit on the tiled floor. Amelia knelt in front of him, and he couldn't help himself as he leaned forward to cry into her shoulder. She held him as he cried and humiliation washed over him. He thought back to the reality where she rejected him in Aperture, and that pain lingered in his chest.

"Your little dog is scared now," he sobbed. An image of that beaked monster in the woods flashed in his mind, causing him to sob just a little harder. He saw it lunge at his face, and could feel as it took a chunk of flesh and cartilage from his nose. The pain was sharp and horrifying. "I-I saw things. The device made me see things that I shouldn't have. I saw monsters that I couldn't fight off." His mind slipped back into the reality of Amelia shouting in his face with an absolute look of hatred in her eyes. His muscles tensed as he was suddenly struck with rage. "And you weren't there to protect me." He remembered the helpless feeling of being taken over by that plant as he could only think of needing to confess his love for her. But where the hell had she been in this time of need? "I needed you, Amelia. I've needed you for a very—long—time!"

"Mikey—"

"NO!" he screamed as he suddenly stood up and loomed over her. A blinding fury was gripping him now. "I'VE NEEDED YOU FOR THE PAST DECADE! I HAVE NO FRIENDS! YOU WERE THE ONLY FRIEND I HAD BUT YOU NEGLECTED ME! YOU LEFT ME WITH HEARTACHE!" It was all finally spilling out. A little over a decade of suppressed raw emotion was exploding from him. He strained himself to keep his eyes from watering.

"Mikey, please…" Amelia looked up at him with such a desperate look. She was obviously terrified of him, and this made him shake with rage. How could she be scared of him? _Him!_ Her dear, loyal friend Mikey!

"Don't you look at me like that." He was surprised by how dark his tone was but he found that it fit the gaping hole that she'd left in his life. "Don't look at me like I'm a monster."

Stevie suddenly started pounding at the door again, calling out for Mikey to open the door. "Don't hurt Amelia! You'd feel terrible about it!"

Mikey didn't respond to this as he glared down at Amelia. She still looked so frightened of him as though he were holding a weapon. He knew that he was capable of hurting her. The rage almost pushed him to do so, but his mind kept flickering back and forth from the reality of bliss with her to the reality in which she seemed to hate him. "You know, he's right," Mikey finally said after almost a minute of consideration. "If I ever hurt you…I'd have to hurt myself."

"Mikey—"

"You don't know what it's like," he continued. "To love someone _so much_ but for them to not feel the same way about you." His mind briefly flashed to Charlie's proposal being rejected in front of so many people. "Such a cliché but it has been one of the worst pains ever. _You_ only know the other end of this. Everyone falling for you, but you have only ever loved one person. A crazy person."

"You don't understand," Amelia whimpered. She almost seemed pathetic in this state as she cowered.

Mikey quickly crouched down in front of her. He could feel the anger burning in his eyes as he met her gaze. "What don't I get?" he asked. He spoke quickly in a low voice. "Please tell me. You're so _smart_ , after all. Our smart, courageous, cute, beautiful, sexy leader. Please tell me."

She hesitated before speaking. "I-I used to like you, too. Actually, I liked you a few years ago."

"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" he screamed right in her face. He felt both regret and satisfaction as he noticed her flinch at the volume of his voice. "DON'T LIE TO ME IN SOME FUTILE ATTEMPT TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!" _Why would I lie about something like this just to make you feel better?_ his own voice echoed in his head. _I swear I wouldn't do that!_

"No, I'm serious!" Amelia said as tears streamed down her face. "Please believe me! I-I had a crush on you, but I thought it was going nowhere so I just got over it."

Mikey was shaking all over, but his eyes widened at this news. "A-Are you serious?" he asked. "You had a crush on me? W….W-Why didn't you ever t-tell me?"

"The same reason you never told me about _your_ crush." He could tell by the sincere look in her teary eyes that she was telling the truth.

He fell backwards onto his butt as he stared at her. He briefly felt blank as the anger drained away. Then he smiled. "Really? Wow, I feel like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. This is great! We can finally be together! I can finally have you!"

"What?" Amelia seemed genuinely confused by this.

"You can leave Doug and we can be together! I can even find someone to marry us!"

Fear seemed to creep back onto her face. "No, Mikey. I can't just leave Doug. I love _Doug_ now." Mikey felt his stomach churn sickeningly at these last words.

"What are you saying?" he asked with a slight laugh of disbelief. "What, you just…You 'fell out of love' with me? You just got over me? Just like that?"

"I thought you didn't like me like that so I just gave up."

"Well, everything is _okay_ now," he said. His smile seemed to be stuck on his face despite his joy being ripped from him. "Just fall _back_ in love with me and everything will be better for the both of us. You don't want to be dating a crazy person, do you?"

"You're acting pretty crazy yourself right now," she said, glaring at him.

" _I'm_ not the crazy one, Amelia!" Mikey laughed manically. "Your boyfriend has schizophrenia!"

"Shut up about Doug's condition!" she shouted angrily. "I'm so sick of people looking down on him for that!"

Mikey couldn't take it anymore. She _had_ to be his. He lunged forward and pressed his lips against hers. He sat on her and pinned her hands against the floor above her head. She tried to scream, but Mikey kept his lips pressed firmly against hers to muffle the sound. He took both of her wrists in one hand so he could take his lips away from hers and cover her mouth. His nose was gently touching hers as he stared down into her eyes intensely. "Don't scream," he whispered. "I love you and I don't want to lose my temper with you."

 **Extra AN: This was a tough one to try to see through Mikey's perspective. I don't even know what I was thinking when I wrote it the first time for "Smiles". But this is also where things start changing.**


	45. Chap 45: Confession

Mikey kept his hand over her mouth as he stared down at her. He felt a small smile form on his face. "You're so beautiful," he said gently. "I've waited so long to be this close to you. You really have no idea how obsessed I've been with you since I first met you. Everything I've ever done, any way I've tried to improve myself has all been for your sake. All I want is to make you happy and be able to cuddle with you. You've been my main motivation to keep going with my pathetic life. I kept going with the hope that one day you'd come talk to me again." He noticed a pang of regret flash in her eyes, and his smile turned into a slight smirk. "Are you regretting coming in here to help me? Are you _afraid_ of me now?"

Amelia struggled to shake her head as he kept his hand over her mouth. He raised an eyebrow at her with curiosity. "Oh?" he asked. "You look like you're regretting _something_. Do you want to tell me what that is?"

He took a chance and removed his hand from her mouth. "Mikey, why?" she asked quietly.

"Why?!" he repeated with a wicked grin. "I already told you! I love you, my dear Amelia! I want you to be mine! You're all that I've ever wanted!"

"No, you idiot!" she suddenly snapped at him. "I mean why didn't you tell me all of this weeks ago?! Before we went into Aperture! You made me feel so unattractive! I tried to subtly flirt with you but you never seemed to react!"

The grin dropped from Mikey's face as he looked at her in confusion. "I…What….Y-You think being subtle with your flirting would draw a reaction out of me?" he stammered. "I'm not a detective, Amelia. You have to be a little more obvious than that. I have no idea what 'flirting' you're talking about anyway. Also, you should _never_ feel unattractive. You're the most gorgeous, adorable person who's ever lived."

He pressed his lips to hers again, and this time Amelia didn't resist nearly as much. In fact, she actually made an effort to kiss back. Soon, Mikey let go of her wrists so he could hold either side of her face. She gently ran her fingers through his hair and his scalp tingled from the sensation of her fingertips brushing against it. It felt so great to be pet by her. He had dreamed of something like this for such a long time. He'd do anything she wanted if only she would continue to pet him more. A scene flashed through his mind of the two of them lying in a bed together and kissing passionately. He supposed that this was the scene in which their baby was conceived. He didn't want to live that out secondhand, though. He wanted this in _his_ reality.

A paranoid thought crossed his mind, though. No, it was a flash of a different reality. It took place in the lab that they were currently in. However, Amelia was standing over him, holding up a stool from one of the lab tables like a weapon. His entire body ached but his head hurt the most. It felt as though he'd been bashed in the head and his ears were ringing. She looked down at him with wide eyes full of anger and regret. He suddenly pulled away from the kiss to look her right in the eye.

"No!" he exclaimed, his voice becoming a bit shriller. "I-I know what you're trying to do and it isn't going to work!" He moved his hands from her face to her wrists to hold them down again.

"What?" Amelia asked, fear and confusion mixing in her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You're trying to distract me so I let my guard down!" he growled. His voice was lower now as he stared daggers at her mere inches from her face. "You're just planning on attacking me and trying to escape! Well, it won't work because I'm onto you now!" He tightened his grip on her wrists, making her wince a little. The scene continued in his head. Amelia seemed to consider something before she decided to bring the stool down hard on the side of his head. His ear on that side stopped ringing as all sound was cut off from it. He could feel a liquid start to fill this ear, making the true him cringe from the sensation.

"Mikey, I'm not trying to do that at all!" Amelia insisted. "I just…I wanted to kiss you. I-It was nice. I, uh….I don't know. I'm kind of, um, attracted to your passion."

Mikey's expression softened a bit. "You are?"

"Y-Yeah. I mean, the way that you declare your devotion to me is sort of…r-romantic."

Mikey smiled briefly before appearing troubled. "I don't know how I'm gonna manage this." He seemed to be murmuring more to himself than to her.

"Um, manage what?" Amelia asked hesitantly.

"I don't know how I'll manage to keep you in here, but I think I can figure something out."

"Keep me in here?" Amelia asked. "Mikey, you'll have to let me out eventually. I'll need to eat and use the bathroom."

"But if I let you out, you'll just go back to Doug and tell him what I've done and he'll want to kick my ass. I just—I-I can't let you go. I can't stand the thought of losing you again. It's an unbearable pain that I don't think I can survive a second time."

He suddenly got off of her and ran his hands through his hair anxiously. "I-I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go from here. I just want to be with you, Amelia. Why can't you just leave Doug—"

"I just _can't_ , okay?" Amelia sat up and looked at him with concern. "I'm sorry. I just…..I love Doug."

Mikey clutched his shirt right over where his heart was as he cringed. "Ow," he said in a quiet, shaking voice. "It _really_ hurts to hear you say that." Tears formed in his eyes as he tried his best to restrain a sob.

"Mikey….I'm so sorry," Amelia said. She felt a pain in her own chest at the sight of seeing her best friend in this state.

There was suddenly a pounding on the locked door. "Mikey! Open this door _right now!"_ Doug called from the other side.

Mikey pulled his knees up to his chest and started shaking all over as he buried his face in his arms. He could hear Amelia fidgeting where she sat. "Just go," he whimpered, his voice muffled slightly as he continued to hide his face. "If you really want to leave to be with him then do it. Just please tell him not to hit me too hard."

His heart broke as he heard her slowly stand up and head over to the door. He didn't hear it open, though.

"Doug?" Amelia called through the door.

"Amelia? Are you okay?" Doug asked frantically.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "Um…..I need to stay in here a little bit longer."

Mikey raised his head slightly to look at her. She stood at the door with worry etched all over her face.

"What? What's going on?" Doug demanded. "Why do you need to stay in there?"

"Something happened to Mikey," she explained. "I need to stay and help him through it. I'll see you back at the apartment."

"What happened?" Doug asked. "Can't I come in and help in any way?"

"It's a long story," Amelia continued. "I'll explain later but right now I need to help Mikey. I'm the only one who can help him get through this. I'll just see you later at the apartment, okay?"

Doug paused for a few seconds before agreeing to this. "Just….Be careful," he said a little more quietly. There were soft footsteps as he walked away from the door.

Amelia returned to Mikey and sat down next to him. She put an arm around his shoulders, but instead of this making him feel better, he couldn't keep in his sobs any longer. His body convulsed with each sob that forced itself out of his lungs. His breaths became faster and shallower as his lungs tightened. His anxiety was beginning to engulf him now.

 _Why did I have to hold her down?!_ he screamed at himself in his head. _Why did I attack her?! Why did I fuck up my brain with this stupid device?!_ He desperately reached up and tried to pull the thing off of his head, but it let out an electrical discharge that made him let go. Amelia flinched away from him as she also felt the shock go through her own body. He growled as he reached up again repeatedly to pull at it, but it shocked him every single time and made him let go.

"Just get off of me!" he snarled furiously. "Get the fuck off my head! I can't stand this! Why did I put this thing on?! How could I be so incredibly stupid?! AAAAGH!" He clawed at the damn thing until his nails started digging into his skin and drawing blood.

"Mikey, stop!" Amelia pleaded. She reached over and took both his hands in hers. He met her gaze and was struck by the concern and affection that dominated every feature. This caused fresh tears to well up in his eyes.

"What did I do to myself?" he whimpered. "I've ruined my life with this thing on my head. I've destroyed any chance of living a life with you."

Amelia let go of his hands to take either side of his face in her hands. She stroked his cheeks as she smiled at him. "You haven't ruined your chance," she said. "Mikey, I….Ugh. Goddammit, Mikey." The smile faded as she looked down nervously.

"What's wrong?" Mikey asked hesitantly, afraid that he had upset her again.

"Fine, I'll just say it," she said with defeat in her voice. "I-I love you, Mikey. I think I even love you more than I love Doug. And I feel terrible about saying that, but you've always been my knight in shining armor. You've always been there for me when I needed you—even if I didn't return the favor. You're so sweet and passionate and absolutely adorable. Whenever I see your face, I feel warm inside. I love those dorky glasses and that shy smile. Really, I've been wanting to talk to you again but I didn't know what the hell to talk about so I just never did. And then we found Doug and I guess my heart just decided that if I couldn't be happy with you, I should try to be happy with someone else. But goddammit, Mikey. Now you decide to tell me how devoted you've always been to me, and how you never gave up on me even after I'd given up on you."

Mikey reached forward to hug her. He tenderly nuzzled his nose into her neck, sending a chill of excitement throughout her. He gave her a few sensual kisses on her neck.

"Mikey, no," she mumbled. "I-I can't do this. I love you but I'm still with Doug. He's been so nice to me and—"

"I've been better to you," he said quietly, his breath tickling her skin a little. "I've been so loyal to you. I've waited _so long_ for you." He stopped nuzzling her neck to look into her eyes. He could see the hesitation in them. "You'll never have the same kind of bond with him that you have with me. Please, Amelia. I don't know what to do without you. I want to be your husband. I want to take care of you in any way possible."

Amelia blushed from this, catching Mikey off-guard a little. "I'm flattered to hear you say that," she said as she tried to hide a smile. "Believe me, it would be great to move into your apartment and make meals with you and fall asleep with you every night. But I really do care for Doug, and I can't break his heart."

Mikey smiled again. "It sounds like you'd rather be with me than him," he said. "I think you deserve to be happy. You shouldn't settle just to spare someone else's feelings."

"But I can't just break his heart," Amelia countered. "Not after all that he's been through."

"I don't think that's a good excuse to stay with him," Mikey said. "Please, just think things over. Please tell me that I actually might have a chance."

Amelia was quiet for a few moments as she stared into his sad eyes. These moments felt so long to Mikey and it made his stomach hurt more with anxiety as each second passed. Finally, she said. "I'll….I'll think about it, okay? I can't make any promises right now, but I feel like I need to consider everything before I choose."

Mikey hugged her, pulling her into his lap as he crossed his legs. She seemed to enjoy this as she snuggled against him and hugged back. He could feel her start to shake, though, and he had to pull away from her to see what was wrong. Tears were streaking down her face but she fought to keep herself from crying.

"Amelia…I'm sorry about all of this," Mikey said quietly. "I never meant to hurt you. All I want is to live my life with you." An image flashed in his head of Amelia cradling a bundle of blankets in her arms as she lied in bed. She turned her attention from the baby to him as she smiled proudly.

"I wish you would've told me all of this a lot sooner," the Amelia in his own universe said. Her voice trembled but she managed to wipe away her tears. "If you would've told me this even just a week ago, I'd be with _you_ right now instead of Doug." She stopped herself as she realized what she'd just said.

Mikey caught this, though. "Amelia, it _really_ sounds like you'd rather be with me," he said.

"Just let me think things over, okay?" she insisted. "We should both probably go soon. We need to get that thing off your head before I can rest easy at all."

Mikey grimaced at the thought of trying to remove the device again, but he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Um, will you walk with me to the psychiatrist?"

Amelia smiled a little. "Of course I will," she said. "I need to make sure you get there safely and all."

Mikey smiled, too. "I think you're just using that as an excuse to be around me more," he said playfully. Amelia smirked at this and pushed him a little.

 **AN: Yeah, baby!** _ **Completely**_ **different storyline! Bet you weren't expecting** _ **that**_ **, were you? This ain't gonna go the way "Smiles" did. Prepare for anything, readers, cuz this one is going deeper than "Smiles".**


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